Perception of Benefits and Co-benefits of Energy Efficient Housing. An Analysis for Barcelona

Abstract

The European building stock is responsible for 36% of greenhouse gas emissions and 40% of energy consumption, and its rehabilitation would reduce consumption by 26%. In addition to the economic benefits of this reduction, such as its incidence in reducing energy poverty, energy efficient homes imply co-benefits in terms of comfort and health of their inhabitants; however, households are not aware of this, which, together with other barriers, discourages obtaining efficient housing. This work seeks to know the importance that households give to the benefits and co-benefits associated with energy efficiency; understand if it is homogeneous among these, and identify its correlation with its sociodemographic characteristics. To do this, a survey is carried out on a sample of households in Barcelona. Through a multivariate analysis, the patterns of relevance given to the different advantages and their statistical association with the sociodemographic characteristics of the households are identified. The results suggest that the importance of these benefits is heterogeneous. Older and higher-income people value more co-benefits such as health, comfort and environmental conservation, but younger and lower-income people value savings more.