Does moving home affect energy use? Exploring the micro-dynamics of residential energy consumption in the United States

This study investigates the dynamics of residential energy consumption at the micro level. Households that move into new dwellings are expected to exhibit distinct energy consumption patterns from those that have lived in the same homes over a long period. These different patterns can occur because residential relocation acts as a trigger that provides an opportunity to improve and be more aware of energy efficiency in dwelling units. By employing a fixed-effect panel regression model with a balanced panel dataset from the American Housing Survey (AHS) from 2001 to 2013, this study empirically analyzes the association between residential electricity consumption and a household's period of residence. The results reveal that households that have moved to new homes tend to consume less energy than an average household, but consumption increases as the period of residence increases, indicating the existence of temporal dynamics in energy consumption patterns. Further, the results suggest that these temporal dynamics are associated with various socioeconomic and environmental factors.