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Research article2008Peer reviewed

Residential bioenergy heating: A study of consumer perceptions of improved woodstoves

Nyrud, Anders Q.; Roos, Anders; Sande, Jon Bingen

Abstract

Consumers' choices play a key role for the development of biomass heating in the residential sector. The city of Oslo has granted subsidies to households who change to new, improved low-emission woodstoves. The purpose of this study is to expand the knowledge about users' experiences and attitudes to residential biomass heating. An adapted model of the Theory of Planned Behavior was used to model households' inclination to continue using their woodstoves for heating. More than 800 questionnaires were collected from households that recently had invested in an improved woodstove. The respondents were satisfied with the new woodstoves. The respondents also considered themselves competent to use and maintain the stove and few had problems acquiring fuelwood. Further analyses showed that the intention to continue to use the new woodstove depends on economic benefits, heating performance, perceived time and effort to operate the stove, environmental effects of heating as well as perceived subjective norm. The results imply that when marketing a modern technology for bioenergy heating, both public authorities and producers should consider issues related to the users' perception of subjective norm, such as perceived status of using bioenergy or environmental concerns, when designing campaigns to promote the use of woodstoves. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

bioenergy marketing; heat generation; bioenergy policy

Published in

Energy Policy
2008, volume: 36, number: 8, pages: 3169-3176
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

  • Roos, Anders

    • Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Global goals (SDG)

SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities

UKÄ Subject classification

Economics and Business
Renewable Bioenergy Research
Social Sciences
Bioenergy

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.04.019

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/17630