Improving Energy Efficiency in Apartment Buildings

Apartment buildings, an important part of the affordable U.S. housing stock, have long been identified as a particularly challenging area for energy conservation. This book reviews building characteristics, energy use, and barriers to conservation in existing five-or-more unit multifamily housing, presents an up-to-date overview of approaches for audit and retrofit, energy-saving technology, conservation programs, evaluation, and financing strategies. Extensive tables and figures providing a statistical portrait of the sector are complemented by a dozen case studies illustrating "what works" for engineering, program planning, and financing apartment building retrofits. Topics cover:

• techniques for efficiency improvement
• program experience highlighting the elements of successful approaches to apartment building retrofit
• innovative methods for financing energy-efficiency improvements in apartment buildings
• recommendations for federal, state, local, and utility programs
• appendices — list of acronyms, organizations and resources, and audit tools for multifamily housing, plus extensive bibliography