The scope of the Weatherization Assistance Program: Profile of the population in need

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is conducting a national evaluation of its Weatherization Assistance Program, an energy efficiency program that provides financial assistance to qualifying low-income households for the {open_quotes}weatherization{close_quotes} of their housing units. The evaluation, being conducted for the Department by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is comprised of five studies. One of the five is a two-part analysis of the scope of the Weatherization Assistance Program and other resources devoted to low-income energy efficiency, including the number of dwellings weatherized to date and the population remaining to be served. This study is referred to here as the {open_quotes}Scope{close_quotes} study. This report presents the results of the second part of the {open_quotes}Scope{close_quotes} study, which investigates the characteristics of the population eligible for and in need of the DOE Weatherization Assistance Program - The Profile of the Population in Need. The {open_quotes}Profile{close_quotes} study is an attempt to use the Energy Information Administration`s Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) for 1990 to define the weatherization-related characteristics of the low-income population. The RECS, a national survey with a sample size of 5,095 households, is the most reliable source for information regarding residential energy-use and housing characteristics because data is collected from fuel vendors on actual household energy bills and consumption for a large and representative sample of households.