Residential Home Audits: An Empirical Analysis of the Ener$ave Program
McDougall, G. H. G., Claxton, J. D. & Ritchie, J. R. B. (1983). Residential home audits: An empirical analysis of the ener$ave program. Journal of Environmental Systems, 12, 3, 265-278.
The purpose of residential home audit programs is to encourage energy conservation by providing homeowners with information concerning retrofit actions which are economically feasible. One particular type of home audit program, the Class B audit, is based on a computerized analysis of the home. This study examined the impact of one Class B audit, the ENER$AVE program operated by the Canadian federal government. A longitudinal analysis of approximately 1400 households, a majority of whom participated in the program, concluded that the ENER$AVE program had little or no effect on homeowners conservation activities. These results coupled with other findings question the effectiveness of Class B audits in general.
