Energy burden is a percentage of income a household pays for energy costs, and high energy burden can lead to negative health, housing, and safety outcomes for financially vulnerable households. Using three federal datasets, this paper assesses relationships between housing characteristics and energy burden across Philadelphia census tracts. Philadelphia provides a unique insight into energy burden as it faces the dual challenges of having one of the country’s poorest big cities and having an exceptionally old housing stock. This research finds that low-income households in the city have lower incomes, higher energy bills, older housing, and more residents per household, which are all contributors to high energy burden. Specific opportunities to reduce energy burden may be found in households with high energy burden utilizing expensive heating fuels and low-income households with air-conditioning.
Policy recommendations for reducing energy burden from this paper include continuing investments in the city’s numerous housing and energy efficiency programs, embracing simple, effective energy efficiency solutions, prioritizing electrification upgrades for residents reliant on the most expensive heating fuels, and providing cooling energy efficiency interventions to homes with especially high heat vulnerability
