Energy efficiency indicators in the residential sector - What do we know and what has to be ensured?

The residential sector was the focus of most of the energy policies in International Energy Agency (IEA) countries after the oil price shocks of the 1970s, In order to assess the impact of these policies, it is important to construct and establish a set of key, internationally accepted, energy efficiency indicators for use in cross-country comparisons, This paper focuses on the methodological issues rather than comprehensive applications of cross-country comparisons, The major conclusions are as follows: (1) end uses can be identified with reasonable reliability; (2) in principle, the energy and CO2 indicators necessary for policy assessment can be identified and derived; (3) the key factors for both normalization (climate) and comparison are understood; (4) the development of more disaggregated structural indicators is the key to gaining a better understanding of the evolution of the demand of energy services; (5) a better measurement of the impact of life-styles is necessary for meaningful cross-country comparisons. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.