Many European households are consuming less energy than predicted, especially in supposedly energy-inefficient homes, a new study has found.
The research identified a recurring gulf between the quantity of energy predicted by governments for different types of housing and the amount homeowners actually use.
Researchers also found that the discrepancy was greatest among the least energy-efficient homes, where householders appear to be consuming far less than national energy usage standards predict.
This phenomenon is branded the “prebound effect” in the study, which is published in the new issue of the journal Building Research and Information. (The term refers to the earlier identification of a “rebound effect”, in which people who have already had energy-saving initiatives such as thermal retrofits implemented in their home then use more energy, reducing the amount of energy actually saved).
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Image: Thermal image of two people standing outside a building. The study found that in many European countries, including the UK, predicted energy usage in homes bears little resemblance to the amount used in practice. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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The prebound effect
3 July 2012
Many homes with poor energy efficiency are actually consuming far less energy than predicted, new research has found. The study has implications for national energy-saving policies and the economic viability of thermal retrofit programmes.