Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofits
With buildings accounting for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, deep energy retrofits to reduce emissions in the majority of existing buildings are necessary to meet global climate goals. Yet a deep retrofit can easily cost $50 000 or more, limiting its affordability and thus likelihood of adop...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/adac09 |
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| author | Zachary Berzolla Ting Meng Christoph Reinhart |
| author_facet | Zachary Berzolla Ting Meng Christoph Reinhart |
| author_sort | Zachary Berzolla |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With buildings accounting for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, deep energy retrofits to reduce emissions in the majority of existing buildings are necessary to meet global climate goals. Yet a deep retrofit can easily cost $50 000 or more, limiting its affordability and thus likelihood of adoption for many households. This paper presents a model of homeowners willingness to pay for different retrofits. The model is meant to quantify the willingness of homeowners to make the economic decision to upgrade their buildings. It can be used to inform the required subsidies to catalyze adoption across the socio-economic spectrum and thus achieve emissions reduction goals. The model is based on a survey of 1200 homeowners in the Northeastern U.S. A logistic regression is carried out on whether or not a respondent is willing to pay for a retrofit. The predictor variables are based on the socioeconomic factors asked in the survey. Key factors influencing homeowners’ willingness to pay include the upfront cost, their income, and their concern about emissions from their home. Notably, increasing concern about emissions for all respondents from the median of ‘slightly concerned’ to ‘extremely concerned’ led to a 50% savings in retrofit subsidy cost. The model can help jurisdictions throughout the U.S. better allocate limited resources to catalyze higher adoption rates of building retrofits. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1a838a1ed8dd41e398e01e13c80813c3 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-4505 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj-art-1a838a1ed8dd41e398e01e13c80813c32025-02-03T12:52:39ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability2634-45052025-01-015101500710.1088/2634-4505/adac09Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofitsZachary Berzolla0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8209-3498Ting Meng1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0828-2108Christoph Reinhart2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6311-0416Sustainable Design Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaAcademy of Global Food Economics and Policy, Beijing Food Safety Policy and Strategy Research Base, College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University , 17 Qinghua East Road, Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of ChinaSustainable Design Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaWith buildings accounting for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, deep energy retrofits to reduce emissions in the majority of existing buildings are necessary to meet global climate goals. Yet a deep retrofit can easily cost $50 000 or more, limiting its affordability and thus likelihood of adoption for many households. This paper presents a model of homeowners willingness to pay for different retrofits. The model is meant to quantify the willingness of homeowners to make the economic decision to upgrade their buildings. It can be used to inform the required subsidies to catalyze adoption across the socio-economic spectrum and thus achieve emissions reduction goals. The model is based on a survey of 1200 homeowners in the Northeastern U.S. A logistic regression is carried out on whether or not a respondent is willing to pay for a retrofit. The predictor variables are based on the socioeconomic factors asked in the survey. Key factors influencing homeowners’ willingness to pay include the upfront cost, their income, and their concern about emissions from their home. Notably, increasing concern about emissions for all respondents from the median of ‘slightly concerned’ to ‘extremely concerned’ led to a 50% savings in retrofit subsidy cost. The model can help jurisdictions throughout the U.S. better allocate limited resources to catalyze higher adoption rates of building retrofits.https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/adac09willingness to payenergy efficiency retrofitsbuilding retrofitsretrofit subsidiesbuilding energy retrofit subsidiesemissions reduction goals |
| spellingShingle | Zachary Berzolla Ting Meng Christoph Reinhart Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofits Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability willingness to pay energy efficiency retrofits building retrofits retrofit subsidies building energy retrofit subsidies emissions reduction goals |
| title | Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofits |
| title_full | Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofits |
| title_fullStr | Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofits |
| title_full_unstemmed | Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofits |
| title_short | Deal or no deal: U.S. homeowners’ willingness to pay for residential building retrofits |
| title_sort | deal or no deal u s homeowners willingness to pay for residential building retrofits |
| topic | willingness to pay energy efficiency retrofits building retrofits retrofit subsidies building energy retrofit subsidies emissions reduction goals |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/adac09 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zacharyberzolla dealornodealushomeownerswillingnesstopayforresidentialbuildingretrofits AT tingmeng dealornodealushomeownerswillingnesstopayforresidentialbuildingretrofits AT christophreinhart dealornodealushomeownerswillingnesstopayforresidentialbuildingretrofits |