Impacts on electricity consumption of household appliances in Austria: a comparison of time series and cross-section analyses

Abstract In this paper electricity consumption of household appliances in Austria is investigated. To extract the impact of various parameters, two different approaches are compared: a time series from 1960-1995 and a cross-section analysis. These analyses lead to the following results: the price elasticity is virtually zero; the income elasticity is high but decreasing. The major conclusion is that with respect to appliance electricity consumption the rebound-effect is low and, hence, efficiency is the most important slower of electricity consumption. Therefore, standards, labelling, and other instruments focusing on an increase of efficiency are the most important tools of energy policy for this end use.