Identification of households' barriers to energy saving solutions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify households' barriers to energy saving solutions. Six types of barriers are introduced. The question to be answered is: what is the strength and relevance of the various barriers for changing consumer energy behaviour?Design/methodology/approach – The method is focus group interviews. Focus groups do not aim at giving a representative picture of the population at large, but aim at recording and documenting a wide range of typical responses and reactions. The focus groups were recruited among a group of people who were actively looking for new dwellings and a reference group of environmentally conscious participants.Findings – Three barriers out of the six proposed were found to be relevant in this study: Cultural‐normative, economic and information.Research limitations/implications – Energy saving solutions are technically and socially complex matters, so it is important to advice and guide consumers to make changes that contribute substantially, rather th...

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