Additional primary or secondary research is needed to determine whether the findings are indeed representative, and whether additional implications might be uncovered with larger samples of landlords and tenants. Membership in trade associations is relatively low among landlords, with less than 8 percent belonging to an apartment association. Only about 41 percent of the sampled rental units are in buildings where the landlord is very interested in making energy efficiency improvements. There is a smaller group of tenants who have lived in their current residence for a relatively long time. These tenants are older than those who move more frequently and more likely to have implemented one or more energy efficiency actions.
Many tenants indicate there are specific comfort issues at their residence.
Two-thirds of the respondents reported their home was either too cold, too stuffy, or too drafty on at least one occasion during the last winter. Nearly two-thirds of the tenants indicated they took at least one energy efficiency action last year. In general, landlords are more interested in making aesthetic improvements to their rental property than in making energy efficiency improvements. A key barrier to making additional energy efficiency investments may be found in landlords' beliefs that there is little need for energy efficiency improvements. Tenants provide lower estimates of the amount of energy they could save by changing their habits and behaviors than landlords do.