Energy consumption in the residential sector: An analysis of the household characteristics influence

This study analyses the behaviour of energy consumption in some regions of Spain, as Catalonia, the Valencian Community and La Rioja. Since Spain has different climate areas, we divide the study in three parts, one for each climate area. We make this differentiation because the climate and the local characteristics, are important in the energy consumption (Estiri, 2014). We seek to clarify the effect of energy consumption on housing, from the point of view of efficiency and energy saving.First, we make an empirical analysis which consists in an observation of energy consumption behaviour according the housing characteristics, like surface, volume, altitude, tier…, and the equipment. The literature indicates that the physical characteristics of the home, such as size (Ewing & Rong, 2008; Shimoda et al., 2012), age (Chong, 2012) and type of housing (Brounen et al, 2012, Estiri, 2014) have a positive and significant impact on energy consumption. However, factors such as climate, location or energy markets do not provide a clear answer and there are discrepancies between the authors (Chong, 2012; Estiri, 2014; Hojjati & Wade, 2012). In addition to this fact, the literature shows that in both climates, improvements in insulation reduce energy consumption (Adan & Fuerst, 2015).In a second step, we analyse the relation between energy consumption and market prices. Some studies have found that exists a premium in selling prices and rents when houses are more energy efficient (Cajias et al., 2016; Eichholtz et al., 2012; De Ayala et al., 2016).To obtain this information of Spain, we use the Energy Certificates data, the housing data and the transaction price data. These databases are formed with revealed information extracted from public sources. Since we use three different databases, we need to build the database to implement a model of hedonic prices. We analyse the energy consumption and its relation to the dwelling characteristics with a semi-log model. Finally, we answer the question, if in Spain exists a ‘green premium’ in the most efficient houses, using a hedonic model to obtain the relevance of each characteristic and their sign in the final price of a transaction.