Drivers of consumers’ change to an energy-efficient heating appliance (EEHA) in households: Evidence from five European countries

Catarina Neves and Tiago Oliveira

Applied Energy, 2021, vol. 298, issue C, No S0306261921005985

Abstract: Residential buildings are significant contributors to global energy consumption. Hence, numerous articles have studied occupants’ energy behaviors to promote households’ change toward energy efficiency. However, the drivers of these behaviors, analyzed in a unified view of several perspectives, have not been fully explored in the literature. Moreover, the intention to adopt an energy-efficient heating appliance (EEHA) has never been investigated in order to understand what drives people to change their current appliances. To fill this gap, our work gathers six relevant contexts (triggers, barriers, engagement, house characteristics, co-benefits, and communication channels) to predict behavior change (both attitude on heating equipment use and intention to change to an EEHA). We tested our model based on a sample of 1611 observations collected in five European countries, using structural equation modeling. Our work reveals the significance of energy efficiency and labeling as motivations, and operation and maintenance as barriers. Co-benefits and communication channels also greatly affect consumer behavior intention, namely organizational and web media channels. Our results also emphasize the importance of consumer engagement in the topic of energy, being the strongest effect on behavior intention. These findings have practical implications for both energy and governmental organizations to increase households’ energy efficiency.

Keywords: Efficient energy; Energy efficient heating appliances; Consumer behavior model; Behavior intention to change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:298:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921005985

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117165

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