To be able to understand the future development needs of district heating companies and present suggestions for future actions it is necessary to understand the needs of customers. Only limited amount of studies about Finnish householders’ attitudes regarding heating systems has been carried out and therefore literature from Sweden has also been addressed in our background study. According to a study by Syvänen and Mikkonen [12] operation reliability and safety are the most important factors when Finnish households select the heating system. After this come savings in energy costs, low procurement cost and easiness of installation. Environmental aspects are at the bottom of the list. The same study also presents that ignorance and availability of only complicated technical information might bring difficulty to decision making. Also Mäkelä et al. [3] point out that if the differences in costs between different heating systems are low decisions are made based on easiness, operation reliability and comfort. These findings are in line also with a study about Swedish homeowners’ perceptions of innovative heating systems [13] according to which economic factors, functional reliability and indoor air quality are considered as much more important than environmental factors. Sernhed and Pyrko [2] present that the decision is usually not a rational choice as it is affected by factors such as comfort of temperature, aesthetics and usability.

Different future scenarios have been presented in a few studies. According to Pesola et al. [14] new smart and flexible solutions, for example decentralised production, heat storing systems, real-time monitoring, optimisation, consumption consulting and new pricing schemes are needed in the future. New business models will be needed as hybrid heating systems will become more common. A Swedish study by Larsson and Persson [15] also predicts that those district heating companies which cannot offer low-carbon services will not succeed in the future competition. Aggregate service packages will be needed in the future and these services need to be developed from the customer’s point of view [3]. For example the “keys in the hand”- service is already preferred by customers who find it difficult to make a decision about something beyond their comprehension [12].

Some studies have presented that in order to attract new customers district heating companies need to improve their marketing and communication skills [15], [16] and new services related to information sharing should be developed. According to the study by Syvänen and Mikkonen [12] customers would be highly interested in an internet service which would allow comparing different energy solutions. Simultaneously the site could function as a forum for customers to exchange experiences and knowledge. It has also been presented that as district heating business will need to evolve towards service business, the customers need to be provided with more guidance and consulting services in the future [17]. District heating has been criticised for not taking sufficiently into account preferences and needs of different customers. Usually district heating companies have only information about buildings, and not about any social factors which also have a large impact on the decision making [16]. According to Isaksson [18] several factors affect the decision making of Swedish house owners and customers also differ from each other to a large extent, depending on the life cycle of the building. Earlier experiences and beliefs regarding the heating systems as well as friends’ opinions might affect the decision greatly. The importance of interpersonal communication has also been highlighted by Mahapatra et al. [13].

The aim of our study was to provide a profound understanding of Finnish households’ attitudes, perceptions and values regarding different heating systems and heating related services. To reliably foresee the future of district heating it is necessary to understand the customer needs, preferences and new trends driving the development of heating systems. The main research questions aimed to be answered by this study are listed as follows:

• What are the house builders’ preferences, expectations, assumptions and prejudices regarding district heating and other heating methods?

• Which are the heating related services that customers want and what kind of service models are needed to fulfil the customer needs?

• What is the role of environmental concern regarding households’ preferences?

• How should district heating companies evolve to promote district heating for single-family houses, row houses and semi-detached houses?

The research was carried out in two stages and the research methods were interviews and a survey. The first target was to identify customer needs and during spring 2013 ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews with single-family house builders were carried out. The questions considered reasons for choosing a certain type of heating system, interest for renewable energy, encountered problems, criteria for decision-making and finally, interest for certain heating related services. These interviews were beneficial also for developing the survey which was used in the second stage.

The survey, targeted for a wide group of potential house builders and house owners, was used for acquiring a comprehensive understanding about customer perceptions regarding heating systems and the need for new services. The survey was distributed and responses were collected at the annual Finnish Housing Fair organised in Hyvinkää, Southern Finland, in the summer 2013 and by email to housing associations (of single family houses, row houses and semi-detached houses) around Finland. The target group of the survey consisted of residents of detached houses, row houses and semi-detached houses who would be potential for either build a new house or change the heating system.

The questionnaire started by basic questions regarding the respondents such as age, place of domicile, type of current housing and number of family members. Next it was inquired whether the respondent was planning to build a new house in the future and how this would be done. The current heating system and the satisfaction level regarding it was queried next after which a series of questions about households’ attitudes regarding different heating systems, criteria for decision-making and interest for heating related services. In the last part the respondent was asked to indicate how much extra he/she would be willing to pay for eco-friendly heating.

The ten interviewed house builders were currently building their own houses in one of the two new residential areas in Hyvinkää town in southern Finland. One of the areas had been chosen for the annual Finnish Housing Fair and therefore the house owners’ preferences might differ from a typical Finnish house builder’s preferences to some extent. However, some conclusions about house builder needs could be identified. One third of the interviewees had chosen district heating as the main heating method. These choices were made based on trust in operation reliability and safety of the system. Also the costs were mentioned as a reason for the choice and the importance of the operational costs over the life-cycle were highlighted more than the initial investment costs.

The house builders residing in the Housing Fair area were exceptionally eager to choose new types of heating systems with rather high initial costs but with prospective low heating costs. Also ecological values seemed to be rather important for these interviewees, which indicate that eco-friendliness might be becoming an increasingly significant criteria for some house builders. However, as the Finnish Housing Fair areas normally serve as forerunners and trend-setters [19] it can be assumed that the builders in this area might not represent a typical Finnish house builder but instead they are important as early adopters of innovative technologies and for diffusion of innovations [20].

Altogether 320 (accepted) responds were received. It is impossible to estimate the response rate because of the lack of information of the number of people who received the request to fill in the questionnaire but it is assumed to be low. If the respondent did not respond to more than half of the questions in the survey, the answers were not considered at all.

A large majority of the respondents (82%) resided in single-family houses and the rest lived in row houses (6%) or semi-detached houses (11%). The average household size of was 2.6 people. Two thirds of the respondents were men and the average age was 55.5 years. The respondents were geographically distributed around the whole country but most resided in southern Finland.

Popularity of and criteria for choosing different heating systems.

The respondents were also requested to rate different heating methods according to the probability that they would choose such system, on the scale from 1 to 5 (1=not likely at all, 5=very likely). Among all respondents ground-source heat pumps (scoring 4.2), other types of heat pumps (3.7), solar heat collectors (3.5) and wood-fired heating (3.1) were the most popular heating methods whereas electric heating (2.3), fuel oil (1.4) and gas heating (1.3) were less likely to be chosen (see Figure 1). Differences between single-family house residents and row house/semi-detached building residents were not significant except for district heating which was much more popular in row houses/semi-detached houses (scoring 3.3) than in single-family houses (2.4).

Figure 1.

Popularity of different types of heating systems

Respondents were asked to rank different criteria when choosing the heating system, on the scale from 1 to 5 (1=not important at all, 5=very important). Operation reliability (scoring 4.9), good quality (4.7) and affordable operation costs (4.7) were highly important factors for households. Next important criteria were easy installation and maintenance (4.4), eco-friendliness (4.0) and affordable procurement costs (3.7). Much less importance was given to pleasant exterior, locality of the product, popularity of the brand and recommendation by sales personnel. Also, very little weight was put on recommendation of friends. This was surprising considering the study by Mahapatra et al. [13], which emphasises interpersonal communication as an important source of information regarding heating systems. No remarkable differences between single family house and row house/semi-detached dwelling owners could be identified (see Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Importance of different criteria when choosing the heating system

When the respondents were asked to indicate their worries related to choosing a heating system, on the scale from 1 to 5, (1=not worrying at all, 5=very worrying), unpredictability of the heating expenses and energy consumption were by far the most worrying aspects, both scoring 3.7 (see Figure 3). Also the other presented aspects (lack of trust for the vender, difficult and/or technical language and lack of time) were considered as quite worrying.

Figure 3.

Worrying aspects related to choosing the heating system

Heating related services.

Interest in different heating related services was enquired by presenting different services and asking the respondents to rate them on the scale from 1 to 3 (1=not much interested, 3=very interested). Highest interest was expressed for solar heating connected to the main heating system (scoring 2.4) but several other services also scored very high (energy consumption monitoring service, heating system as a "keys-in-the-hand service" and an internet service enabling comparison of different heating methods scored 2.3). Slightly less interest was expressed for prolonged payback time for procurement and 24/7 maintenance service (see Figure 4).

Figure 4.

Interest in heating related services

Readiness to pay more for eco-friendliness or better services.

Finally, the respondents were asked to indicate how much more they would be willing to pay for eco-friendly heating. More than one third of the respondents (36%) were willing to pay “nothing” and another third (31%) chose 1-3% more. The rest were willing to pay 3-5% extra (18% of the respondents), 5-10% extra (9% of the respondents) and a few respondents even 10-15% and more than 15% extra (see Figure 5). These results imply that paying for eco-friendliness has not yet reached popularity among a large group of people. However, a small minority seems to have adopted ecological values to a high level and are willing to also pay for these values.

Figure 5.

Willingness to pay extra for eco-friendly heating

The respondents also had a possibility to mention other reasons why they could be willing to pay more for the heating. Most of these responses were related to good functionality and usability of the heating system. Other rather often mentioned reasons were cost savings during the whole life cycle of the building, stability and predictability of the energy costs and local energy production.