Low-income housing incurs a disproportionate energy cost burden as a percent of income as compared to higher income groups. Cost barriers commonly associated with energy efficiency measures impede their general use by many low-income households.
There are market forces on both the demand and the supply side that constrain the realization of energy efficiency opportunities for low-income households. In general, the initial cost is an important consideration in their purchases of appliances and other household items. As such, they tend to avoid purchasing more energy efficient where these initial costs are somewhat higher. The pool of available energy efficient opportunities for low-income households is therefore more limited than for similar needs associated with higher-income households.
From the supply side, the new entry-level or starter home is fast becoming a thing of the past. Construction of single-family detached homes that are 1,200 square feet or less has diminished dramatically in the past 25 years. In 1970, 36 percent of new single-family homes were less than 1,200 square feet; by 1992 that figure had dropped to 10 percent. During the same period, the median new home size grew from 1,385 square feet to 1,920 square feet, and prices increased accordingly. In short, the relatively low demand for energy efficiency from low-income households is met by correspondingly low supply.
The primary objective of this research effort is to develop information, strategies, and technologies that will contribute to reducing energy use and its related expense in low-income households for both existing and new housing. This research will focus on low cost options that reduce monthly energy costs and improve the quality of life by improving comfort levels in homes occupied by low-income households.
The Low-Income Energy Efficient
Housing Program is a three-year research effort targeted towards adapting technologies,
either new or existing that reduces residential energy use and by doing so reduces
consumer costs. Heading by the consulting firm of ADM
Associates, Inc., the program brings together a distinguished group of scientists
and researchers from the Energy
Systems Laboratory at Texas A&M University, the Florida
Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida, the University
of Nebraska and the Heat
Island Group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories. Hashem Akbari, the leader
of the Heat Island Group, is assisting ADM as a consultant. Funded by the California
Energy Commission through its Public
Interest Research Program (PIER), the consultant team has been charged with
carrying out the many tasks associated with the research program.