Demanding expectations : exploring the experience of distributed heat generation in Europe
Date
01/2021Grant ID
ES/K009516/1
Keywords
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Abstract
In this study, we advance thinking around microgeneration for heat, moving debates on from issues of adoption and performance to bring richer and more sophisticated understandings of how and why households install and live with renewable energy technologies. We draw on a study with 32 households in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, presenting qualitative data collected through an online photo journal to provide insights on the subjective experience of microgeneration for heat technology. We identified a tension between the installation and operational phases of microgeneration for heat systems highlighting that routine, daily domestic practices were at least, if not more, important than the building fabric when seeking to deliver energy savings. This tension was common to both United Kingdom and Dutch households and all microgeneration for heat types, although more pronounced for those with biomass systems. We also explore how householders’ ideas of the future impact on the use of and demand for microgeneration for heat systems; with United Kingdom participants more likely to anticipate greater demand and have systems they felt were ‘over capacity’. We argue that householders’ perspectives, particularly in relation to expectations around future energy demand, are generally overlooked in renewable energy research.
Citation
Reid , L & Ellsworth-Krebs , K 2021 , ' Demanding expectations : exploring the experience of distributed heat generation in Europe ' , Energy Research and Social Science , vol. 71 , 101821 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101821
Publication
Energy Research and Social Science
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2214-6296Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101821.
Description
This work was funded by Economic and Social Research Council (Grant Number ES/K009516/1).Collections
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