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Impact of Residential Retrofits on Gas and Electricity Consumption in France

Charly Andral, Laetitia Leduc, Guillaume Matheron, Yukihide Nakada

Abstract

This study examines the impact of residential energy retrofits on household energy consumption in France using smart meter data from nearly 2,500 Hello Watt users, using a two-period difference-in-differences design. The dataset combines daily electricity and gas consumption collected through smart meters, hourly temperatures from Météo France, and user-declared home and retrofit information. As a control, we use a group composed of homes of Hello Watt users that are similar to the treated homes, but did not undergo any renovations. The average treatment effect on the treated is estimated with the estimator of Sant'Anna & Zhao (2020). Estimates are reported by energy source (electricity vs. gas) and by retrofit type. The retrofit measures considered are limited to single interventions: wall insulation, attic insulation, floor insulation, installation of an air-to-air heat pump, or installation of an air-to-water heat pump. A comprehensive retrofit is defined separately as the simultaneous implementation of at least two of these measures. Our results show that insulation works cause a significant decrease in both electricity and gas consumption (3% to 13% and 5% to 16% respectively, depending on the retrofit type). We also estimate the reduction on the heating consumption only (7% to 27% for electrical heating and 7% to 19% for gas heating). We also study retrofits that consist in replacing a gas boiler with an air-to-water heat pump, resulting in a cut of 85% in carbon emissions.

Impact of Residential Retrofits on Gas and Electricity Consumption in France

Abstract

This study examines the impact of residential energy retrofits on household energy consumption in France using smart meter data from nearly 2,500 Hello Watt users, using a two-period difference-in-differences design. The dataset combines daily electricity and gas consumption collected through smart meters, hourly temperatures from Météo France, and user-declared home and retrofit information. As a control, we use a group composed of homes of Hello Watt users that are similar to the treated homes, but did not undergo any renovations. The average treatment effect on the treated is estimated with the estimator of Sant'Anna & Zhao (2020). Estimates are reported by energy source (electricity vs. gas) and by retrofit type. The retrofit measures considered are limited to single interventions: wall insulation, attic insulation, floor insulation, installation of an air-to-air heat pump, or installation of an air-to-water heat pump. A comprehensive retrofit is defined separately as the simultaneous implementation of at least two of these measures. Our results show that insulation works cause a significant decrease in both electricity and gas consumption (3% to 13% and 5% to 16% respectively, depending on the retrofit type). We also estimate the reduction on the heating consumption only (7% to 27% for electrical heating and 7% to 19% for gas heating). We also study retrofits that consist in replacing a gas boiler with an air-to-water heat pump, resulting in a cut of 85% in carbon emissions.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 51 sections, 11 equations, 5 figures, 20 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Methodology
  4. Empirical results
  5. Data
  6. Declarative data from Hello Watt users
  7. Home characteristics
  8. Retrofit data
  9. Consumption data
  10. Weather data
  11. Correction of consumption data for weather effects
  12. Data selection
  13. There is at least one year of energy data before and after the retrofit
  14. The retrofit work is done alone
  15. Some heating is detected before and after the retrofit
  16. ...and 36 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) for electricity consumption in %. It corresponds to the impact of several retrofit measures on the annual electricity consumption, for homes with electric heating. Error bars show the 95% confidence interval.
  • Figure 2: Average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) on the heating part of electricity consumption in %. It corresponds to the impact of several retrofit measures on the annual electricity consumption, for homes with electric heating. Error bars show the 95% confidence interval.
  • Figure 3: Average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) for gas consumption, in %. It corresponds to the impact of several retrofit measures on the annual gas consumption, for homes with gas heating. Error bars show the 95% confidence interval.
  • Figure 4: Average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) on the heating part of gas consumption in %. It corresponds to the impact of several retrofit measures on the annual gas consumption, for homes with gas heating. Error bars show the 95% confidence interval.
  • Figure 5: Average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), corresponding to the impact of switching from gas heating to heat pump, for electricity and gas consumption. Results in kWh HHV/year. The sample size is 24 homes for the treatment group, and 120 homes for the control group. Error bars show the 95% confidence interval.