Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Practicing energy prosumption
T2 - using unsolicited online data to reveal the everyday realities of solar thermal panels in the United Kingdom
AU - Reid, Louise
AU - Ellsworth-Krebs, Katherine
N1 - This work was funded by Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/K009516/1].
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - International targets for emissions reduction are encouraging increasingly more households to become energy producers. We present analysis of Mumsnet, a UK online discussion forum (19 million visits/month), to explore unsolicited accounts of these energy prosumers to understand their motivation and experience of installing and living with one type of microgeneration technology: solar thermal panels for hot water. In so doing, we challenge research and policy approaches that assume financial and environmental motivations as dominant in householder uptake of microgeneration technology. We draw attention to the wider reality within which energy prosumption practices are performed, how they coincide with other home improvements, and how they relate to expectations about modern lifestyles. To conclude, we discuss the implications of this for policy.
AB - International targets for emissions reduction are encouraging increasingly more households to become energy producers. We present analysis of Mumsnet, a UK online discussion forum (19 million visits/month), to explore unsolicited accounts of these energy prosumers to understand their motivation and experience of installing and living with one type of microgeneration technology: solar thermal panels for hot water. In so doing, we challenge research and policy approaches that assume financial and environmental motivations as dominant in householder uptake of microgeneration technology. We draw attention to the wider reality within which energy prosumption practices are performed, how they coincide with other home improvements, and how they relate to expectations about modern lifestyles. To conclude, we discuss the implications of this for policy.
KW - Microgeneration
KW - Renewables
KW - Energy prosumption
KW - Solar thermal panels
KW - Sustainability
U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2017.07.010
DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2017.07.010
M3 - Journal article
VL - 34
SP - 191
EP - 199
JO - Energy Research and Social Science
JF - Energy Research and Social Science
SN - 2214-6296
ER -