The effect of energy efficiency policies on air pollution in south-central Chile

A. SCHUEFTAN; A.D. GONZALEZ

Berlin

Congreso; EES 2015 - Multidisciplinary symposium on energy, efficiency and sustainability; 2015

Technische Universität Berlin

We have investigated technical, economical andpolicy aspects in the use of fuel wood in households of south-central Chile. Lowefficiency in buildings? envelopes was found, which leads to very highconsumption of firewood and hence to high emissions of particulate matter (PM).In addition, user practices that systematically choke the air inlet of fuelwood stoves were found to further increase PM emissions. Around 95% ofhouseholds in Valdivia use firewood for heating and 80% of households werefound to spend more than 10% of their income in residential energy. Presentpolicies promote energy efficiency through subsidies for retrofitting and toreplace old stoves and their effects on emissions reductions, comfort standardsand energy poverty were studied. Different techniques and materials to retrofitexisting houses and the replacement of old stoves for newer technologies werestudied for a sample of 2025 households in Valdivia. It was found thatretrofits have high potential to lower fuel consumption and thus reduce airpollution and energy costs; while replacing stoves could have a limited effecton lowering emissions but would not alleviate energy poverty. In the economicanalysis we have calculated the total cost for private and public sector. Fromprivate households? point of view, the options with retrofit led to much lowercost as the savings in fuel wood are significant, and subsidies reduce the costof retrofits. For the public sector, the savings are in healthcare services andthe main investment is in the subsidies, thus the option replacing only stoves haslowest cost for the public sector. However, this option is not sustainable dueto persisting high consumption of firewood and vulnerability to air chokingpractices.