At BuilderScrap.com we’re looking at the way Home builders can you help you guys save energy. The survey asked respondents if they had or had considered installing various energy-generating items in their homes. The four items covered are shown in Table 11 with a summary of responses to these questions.

As shown in the table above, very few people have installed any of the five items (1% or less in each case). This is consistent with the 2007 Defra survey – which found less than 1% of those surveyed had installed solar panels, solar water heating or a wind turbine, and with The Energy Saving Trust‟s tracker survey in February 2008 – which found less than 1% had biomass heating.
Furthermore, the proportion who said they were contemplating installing each of the items was low. Around one in ten (12%) claimed to be contemplating installing solar panels, with a similar proportion (10%) claiming to be contemplating installing solar water heating. Smaller numbers said they were contemplating installing either a wind turbine (5%) or a ground source heat pump (3%).

For all five of the items the majority of respondents were either at the pre-contemplation stage (having never heard of the item or having not given it any consideration) or having rejected it as an option. Respondents were least likely to have contemplated installing biomass heating or a ground source heat pump – 65% and 58% of respondents respectively fell into the pre-contemplation category for these behaviours (with a high proportion stating that they had not heard of either of these). At least half of respondents had rejected the idea of installing solar panels (55%), solar water heating (50%) or a wind turbine (58%).

All respondents who had installed at least one of these items at their homes were asked what were the main reasons they had done this, though as so few people had installed the items the base sizes were too small to support any analysis.