Residential Solar Water Heater Adoption Behaviour: A Review of Economic and Technical Predictors and Their Correlation with the Adoption Decision

Sara Ghaboulian Zare, Reza Hafezi, Mohammad Alipour, Reza Parsaei Tabar and Rodney A. Stewart
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Sara Ghaboulian Zare: Industrial Engineering Department, Sadjad University, Mashhad 91886, Iran
Reza Hafezi: Science and Technology Futures Studies, National Research Institute for Science Policy, Tehran 1435894461, Iran
Mohammad Alipour: School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia
Reza Parsaei Tabar: Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad 91779, Iran
Rodney A. Stewart: School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-26

Abstract: The successful deployment of the solar water heater (SWH) in the residential sector relies on the household’s bounded rational decision-makers to accept this system. The decision is shaped by a wide spectrum of predictors that form heterogeneous behaviour. Over the past years, research has employed a wide range of these predictors to understand their role in the decision and predict the behaviour and diffusion rate of SWHs. This review primarily identifies economic and technical predictors of 100 quantitative and qualitative studies on the residential SWH adoption decision. For the identified predictors, their characteristics and popularity are explored in a structured and coherent framework. The review further investigates the correlation between the identified predictors and the adoption decision from 97 of the 100 initially reviewed studies. The outcome of the research revealed 123 (56 economic and 67 technical) predictors that were classified into seven categories. ‘Financial incentives’ and ‘perceived attitude towards government policies’ are among the most popular economic predictors, whereas ‘house type’ and ‘knowledge of SWH’ were the most frequent technical factors in the research. Analysing the correlation between 99 predictors and the decision also unfolded that certain attitudinal attributes have a stronger influence on the residential SWH take-up than some common factors (e.g., electricity cost, technical variables).

Keywords: solar water heater; adoption behaviour; household; predictors; technology innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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