Understanding the non-adoption of energy efficient hot water systems in New Zealand

Campbell Grieve, Rob Lawson and James Henry

Energy Policy, 2012, vol. 48, issue C, 369-373

Abstract: The speed at which many energy efficient technologies have been adopted has been very slow and the reasons why this is the case are often not well understood. An important area for New Zealand is domestic hot water which typically accounts for one-third of a household's electricity usage. We use in-depth interviews to examine the decision processes of six householders who were replacing existing hot water systems or building new homes. We also interviewed different trades people and professionals advising those households. Seven themes emerge from the interviews which demonstrate huge inertia to change. Using methods from decision sciences we also construct an information processing model describing the possible steps in the adoption decision. This model emphasises the complexity and difficulty a householder currently faces if they wish to pursue an alternative system for heating hot water.

Keywords: Hot water heating; Household energy efficiency; Household adoption of energy efficient systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151200451X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:48:y:2012:i:c:p:369-373

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.05.039

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().