Insulation and Air Sealing in Low-income Multifamily Energy Efficiency Programs

Energy efficiency (EE) upgrades to existing buildings can deliver substantial benefits by reducing emissions from energy use, lowering energy bills, and improving comfort. Insulation and air sealing are key upgrade measures that lead to better-performing buildings, especially relevant for buildings housing low income populations that face higher energy burdens and poorer housing quality with more extreme indoor temperatures. We conducted interviews and gathered publicly available information from EE programs to understand whether and how insulation and air sealing are done in low income multifamily buildings, and what materials are used.
We found that these measures are often not included in such EE upgrades, due to program design and technical challenges. For example, some programs do not allow these measures, while other programs do not have adequate incentives to support their installation. Even if allowed, technical challenges with installing these measures, especially in an occupied building, may prevent their inclusion.  

Opportunities to broaden the use of insulation and air sealing in EE programs and ensure that healthier materials are used include improving data collection and reporting, strengthening material specifications, and updating program design to robustly incentivize HVAC and building enclosure insulation and air sealing measures in low-income multifamily buildings.