“This document represents an addendum to the report entitled “Measuring the rebound effect of energy efficiency initiatives for the future – A South African case study”, which was completed in March 2010. The addendum summarises the outcomes of a data collection exercise which was originally undertaken with the aim of measuring the rebound effect resulting from largescale
rollouts of solar water heaters (SWHs)within the middle to high income demographic in the residential sector. One of the challenges of conducting a micro-level study on the rebound effect arising from a technology intervention is that there is no control over the timing of the technology rollout. In the case of this research, the rollout of SWHs in the chosen study site was repeatedly delayed throughout the 3-year term of the study for a variety of reasons that were beyond the control of the researchers. The impact of the indefinite delays to the rollout was that a follow-up study could not be undertaken within a reasonable time-frame. At the time of writing, only one household had undergone a change from a traditional electric geyser to solar water heating system under the planned rollout, and hence it was not possible to determine the behavioural response by conducting a before versus after analysis on the houses being monitored. As such, the addendum only presents the “before” data. In addition to presenting the data, some insights generated from the literature search and from inter-action with various stakeholders during the study period are presented.”
