This article assesses selected direct and indirect measures of energy conservation program
impact. The analysis is based on a case study of three sets of impact data generated by one
of the Energy Extension Service's most successful pilot period programs. The indirect
estimates are found to run about twice as high as the estimate based on before-and-after
direct measurements and to suffer from large sampling errors. Although more accurate
and reliable, direct measurements can encounter problems of time and cost. In such cases,
survey evidence on implementation rates can be combined with pretest evidence on
possible savings to yield usable esiimates of program impact.
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