Reluctance to Adopt Energy Efficiency Renovation in Chinese Households – A Behavioural Perspective

    Activity: Talk or presentationTalk or presentation at a conference

    Description

    Chinese government has taken great effort to improve the energy efficiency of existing housing stock. In the northern heating region, the energy performance of existing housing stock has improved considerably through renovation projects in recent years. However, at the moment, all the renovation projects in this region are mainly government-led and government-subsidized. Besides, it is still essential to progress further in both technical and social aspects to meet the ambitious energy conservation target of residential energy efficiency renovation is 500 million square meters by 2020. To achieve the ambitious renovation target, it is urgent to executive diversified financial incentives and motivate the willingness to investment by the homeowners. The cognitive decisions of homeowners that will determine whether the renovation work could proceed smoothly, yet it appeared to be a wealth of nuances and unknowns surrounded. Many homeowners show reluctance in the renovation process, which indicates the dysfunction of policy measure and its implementation, and cause failure to meet the retrofit goals. The aim of the research is to identify the reluctance behaviour of Chinese households in residential energy efficiency renovation, and give policy implications to mitigate the problem. Semi-structured interviews are conducted to analyze the homeowners’ concerns and reasons for reluctance in adopting energy efficiency renovation. Unwilling to investment to the renovation, unsure about the renovation impact to the dwellings and energy performance, and disagree with the mechanism or procedure of the renovation are the main reasons observed.
    Period20 Jun 2017
    Event titleIAEE 2017: 40th IAEE International Conference "Meeting the Energy Demands of Emerging Economies/Implications for Energy and Environmental Markets"
    Event typeConference
    LocationSingapore, SingaporeShow on map
    Degree of RecognitionInternational

    Keywords

    • building energy efficiency
    • housing renovation
    • decision making
    • behaviour