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Effective policy instruments for energy efficiency in residential space heating-an international empirical analysis

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For the empirical analysis of the effectiveness of instruments aiming at a reduction of the energy consumption for space heating a techno-economic-model has been developed including variables for the vintage class of buildings, the type of heating system, the type of building, the owner status, the household characteristics, fuel prices and many more. Based on this model the influence of these variables on the energy demand for residential space heating has been analysed in Denmark, Sweden, France, The Netherlands and Germany. The differences and similarities of the national results have been compared. Building standards have shown a strong impact on the energy use. The same result is observed for the choice of the heating system/energy carrier. The influence of subsidies and prices/taxes on the short term is small. Additionally the empirical results have been compared to the results of a building simulation model in order to evaluate the empirical results.
The empirical investigation of the energy use for residential space heating has shown that there is still a large potential for reduction. A tightening of the existing standards could be increasingly costly due to the high level of the existing standards, but with modern building components there is still a potential for retrofit in the existing building stock. For Taxes, Subsidies and other instruments recommendations are found, too. The following recommendations for EU and national policies can be formulated: - Apply carbon taxes, but do not expect them to have a large impact in the short run. - Allow flexibility in standards for new buildings. - Look especially for energy savings in existing buildings. - Address specific barriers to energy savings in the existing building stock by means of appropriate supplementary instruments. - Design policy instruments so as to improve implementation and to reduce the "rebound effect". - Introduce some harmonisation at the EU level, but do not aim at completely uniform EU wide standards. - Maximise flexibility in energy supply systems for new housing projects. - Compare the costs of energy saving in residential space heating with those in other areas. - Do not get discouraged by the limitations of the influence of energy policies on residential heating energy use.
This result gives an overview over the differences and similarities of the existing policy instruments like standards, taxes and subsidies in Denmark, Sweden, France, The Netherlands and Germany. Studying the five regulation systems resulted in the following general findings: All countries examined have at minimum reached a level at which the total building system is subject of standards. Factors like ventilation losses or solar gains are calculated in all countries but the supply side of residential energy is actually only integrated in France and the Netherlands. Decrees on building standards include the calculation of heating demand as well as its assessment i.e. the comparison with a certain limit value. Every country takes another key value of the building system to establish national limit values. Due to their considerable revenues taxes are probably the main guiding structural force beside the standards. A step-by-step widening and deepening of the tax base and rates happened in the 90ties, e.g. the including of emission taxes in Sweden and Denmark or the constantly increasing oil taxes all over the countries examined. Most of all in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands taxes are used to induce allocative effects.

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