Browsing by Author "Clapper, Haley"

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    The Effects of Redlining on Residential Energy Efficiency and Resilience in Extreme Temperature Events
    (2024-04-26) Clapper, Haley
    Residential energy efficiency is a component of individual and community resilience during extreme temperature events, especially extreme heat. Historic and lower-quality homes are often less energy efficient, requiring more time to heat up during cold events or cool down during heat events due to gaps in building envelopes. In the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), a U.S. government-sponsored organization tasked with refinancing home mortgages, developed residential security maps of over 200 U.S. cities to appraise neighborhoods based on the perceived lending risk associated with demographics, a practice known as “redlining.” Over several decades, redlined neighborhoods predominantly populated by low-income and non-white residents received less investment than non-redlined neighborhoods predominantly populated by wealthier white residents. This study explores how historical redlining has left a legacy of disinvestment in housing, which may contribute to inequities in residential energy efficiency compared to non-redlined neighborhoods. Using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s ResStock tool, we modeled indoor temperature change in various building types over time under coincident extreme temperature and power outage scenarios. Additionally, we modeled energy efficiency upgrades to identify opportunities for enhancing building envelopes. We then examined performance differences for specific building types that are notably more or less prevalent in redlined and non-redlined neighborhoods in Durham, North Carolina. We identified several building types that were more prevalent in redlined areas and performed less efficiently on average compared to home types that were more prevalent in non-redlined areas. Lastly, we found that upgrades can enhance energy efficiency in homes, but further study is needed to elucidate potential differences in upgrade benefits between homes that are more prevalent in redlined areas compared to those more prevalent in non-redlined areas. Layered with other consequences of neighborhood disinvestment, such as urban heat island effects, these inequities can threaten human health, energy affordability, and overall resilience during extreme temperature events. Overall, this analysis provides insight into potential disparities underlying residential energy efficiency associated with redlining and spatial distributions of building characteristics, which could potentially inform policies and retrofit investments to build more equitable resilience in the face of future extreme temperature events.