Abstract
Cooling infrastructure, technologies, and nature-based interventions are critical components in mitigating heat-related risks, energy insecurity, and household carbon footprints. This study investigated whether various climate adaptation and mitigation interventions affect energy burden and how seasonality (i.e., changes across seasons) affects energy insecurity reductions. We focused on the following interventions within Arizona’s Salt River Project service area: air-conditioning (AC) adoption, rooftop photovoltaic (PV) with batteries, weatherization, and increased tree coverage. We developed a multi-model analysis using daily smart meter data from 2015–2018, weather data, housing and household survey data, and open-source models to simulate changes in household energy use. Our model produces estimates of energy consumption, cost, burden, and avoided emissions for both census tracts and building types. Our novel approach combines climate interventions, CO₂ mitigation, and energy insecurity reductions, which have typically been isolated. We found that without intervention, energy burden for an average household ranges from 2% annually to 5.7% in fall and 10.7% in summer.