Subsidy allocation for residential building energy retrofit: A perspective of families' incomes

High household end-user services demand of high-income families results in higher energy consumption compared with low-income families, indicating high-income families may save more energy from similar building energy retrofitting (BER) strategies. Therefore, current BER subsidy policies, which consider technique indicators and ignore...

Planning home energy retrofit in a social environment: The role of perceived descriptive and injunctive social norms

In the built environment, improving the energy efficiency of existing building stock through retrofitting is the top pillar to mitigate climate change. Despite the efforts made by local authorities to provide technical and financial supports, the home energy retrofit rate remains low. This study aims to improve the understanding of how...

Barriers for Homeowners in Decisions to Undertake Government-Led Energy Efficiency Renovation Projects in Northern China

The Chinese government has taken actions to promote energy efficiency through the renovation of residential buildings in the Northern Heating Region. Homeowners have been encouraged to undertake government-led energy efficiency renovation; however, their decisions to undertake the renovation are affected by several barriers. The lack of...

Review on shallow geothermal promoting energy efficiency of existing buildings in Europe

The energy-saving renovation of existing buildings has been attracted sufficient attention to reduce fossil fuels and mitigate global warming in Europe. The shallow geothermal for building cooling and heating, as an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective alternative, has been widely explored to promote energy efficiency of existing...

An Investigation of Occupants' Energy Perceptions in Energy Efficient Retrofitted Residential Buildings: A Review Paper

Buildings are the main sector in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Retrofitting of existing building has been identified as one of the significant strategies for reducing the impacts of buildings on energy and environment. However, recent studies have shown that low energy buildings mostly do not perform as expected. These differences are...

Identification of the behavioural factors in the decision-making processes of the energy efficiency renovations: Dutch homeowners

Over half of all residential buildings in the Netherlands are owner-occupied. In this study, the influence of behavioural factors on individual decisions toward energy efficiency renovations (EERs) was investigated. This study focused on contextual (e.g. building characteristics), personal (e.g. awareness of energy consumption), and...

Homeowners’ Participation in Energy Efficient Renovation Projects in China’s Northern Heating Region

In China’s government-led energy efficient renovation of residential buildings, homeowners’ participation refers to their involvement and engagement throughout the process. Lacking homeowners’ participation has brought difficulties in the execution and financing of the projects. This paper explores the current situation of homeowners’...

Transaction costs as a barrier in the renovation decision-making process: A study of homeowners in the Netherlands

The renovation of housing stock in the Netherlands has the potential to help achieving the country's climate change targets. However, there are non-monetary Transaction Cost (TC) factors, such as searching for information and finding a reliable professional/contractor, that present barriers to householders when making the decision to renovate...

Unravelling Dutch homeowners’ behaviour towards energy efficiency renovations: What drives and hinders their decision-making?

The housing stock has a considerable share of 40% in energy consumption and 36% of CO ₂ emissions in the EU. In accordance to energy efficiency and emissions targets set by EU, The Netherlands has aimed to renovate 300,000 homes each year, leading to 50% reduction in CO ₂ emissions, by 2050. Many factors including low...