Abstract
Which attributes are the most important when buying a property? How much do individuals value energy efficiency? What discount rates do individuals employ when investing in energy efficiency and which factors influence them? This paper examines the results of a stated preference consumer survey undertaken in Slovenia in late 2017 to investigate these questions, also trying to answer how much the consumers are willing to consider future energy savings associated with the purchase of advanced home heating controls. The results show that energy efficiency as a decision-making attribute is very important for Slovenians, being the second most important after the property price. Females, environmentally aware and married individuals are more likely to value energy efficiency highly when buying a property. Interest in energy-efficient heating controls’ investment confirms the notion that people tend to discount the future benefits at 40%, on average, and give more importance to future energy savings when the investment cost is higher. Females favour higher implicit discount rates and shorter payback periods and therefore expect a higher return (energy savings) on the investment while people with higher education levels value future costs more and are willing to invest more due to the increased benefits of energy efficiency.
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The questionnaire is added in the Appendix.
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Funding
This paper was supported by the European Union’s Framework Programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020 under grant agreement number 723741, project CONSEED. The authors received financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding No. P2-0356).
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Appendix
Appendix
Survey questionnaire
Example of a discounting question asked for the option of installing new advanced heating controls (part of the survey)
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Lakić, E., Damigos, D. & Gubina, A.F. How important is energy efficiency for Slovenian households? A case of homeowners and potential homebuyers and their willingness to invest in more efficient heating controls. Energy Efficiency 14, 9 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09916-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09916-x