Making the home consume less – putting energy efficiency on the refurbishment agenda

Dr. Immanuel Stieß, Institute for Social-Ecological Research ISOE GmbH, Germany
Prof. Dr. Stefan Zundel, Lausitz University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Dipl.-Ing. Jutta Deffner, Institute for Social-Ecological Research ISOE GmbH, Germany

Keywords

heating, energy efficiency, residential sector, refurbishment, home owner, low carbon lifestyle, cognitive frames, biographical changes

Abstract

Private home owners can reduce their energy use significantly and move towards a low carbon lifestyle by retrofitting their homes in an energy efficient standard. Despite high awareness for energy efficiency and rising energy prices, home owners only slowly take this opportunity to cut down their personal energy use and carbon emission significantly. In many cases, maintenance and repair activities only result in incremental improvements of energy efficiency. Thus, the dynamics of refurbishment seems to have a conservative bias. Against this background, we will present results from an empirical survey, focussing on home owners' maintenance and refurbishment decisions. Drawing on approaches from social-psychology, lifestyle analysis and evolutionary economics, we will explore the impact of attitudes, lifestyle orientations, cognitive frameworks and social resources on refurbishment decision especially on energy efficient ones and present a model integrating the most important driving factors.