Energy decisions in heating consumption. Results from fuzzy cognitive maps

Panel: 7. Make buildings policies great again

Authors:
ELENA LOPEZ BERNABE, Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Spain
Ibon Galarraga Gallastegui, Basque Center for Climate Change, Spain

Abstract

Background. The residential building sector in Spain, as in Europe, is a major driver of current and future energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions. The main use of energy by households is for heating their homes. Policy makers need to better understand consumers’ behaviour to design effective energy savings strategies.

Methods. We organized three focus groups in Spain to study which are the main factors that determine households’ heating expenditure. The objective was twofold: (i) to learn more about the determinants of the energy consumption (and thus expenditure) for heating and (ii) to find out what policies can achieve more sustainable and eco-friendly heating behaviour. The three focus groups targeted a different population – citizens, academics and energy experts – in order to test potential differences. By aggregating the ideas mentioned by different participants, we used fuzzy cognitive mapping to represent key drivers of the system and connections between concepts.

Results. All the focus groups considered that economic variables such as energy price and income of households fully determined the heating bill. Variables related to physical attribute of houses such as number of rooms, insulation or orientation were also important. Other factors mentioned were lifestyle factors, such as turn on the heating system at night or other types of temperature control. Education in energy saving behaviour was also considered as important factor to reduce the heating bill.

Conclusion. The most significant differences between the groups were that, academics and expert groups considered that taxes could improve energy savings. However, citizens group expressed a strong preference for policies that could improve understanding of the energy bill. This study can be helpful for the design of effective policies on heating consumption.