Korean Energy Economic Review ISSN:1599-7057(Print) 에너지경제연구

These days, more private sector and customer-based heating markets are emerging. The competition for customers between Gas-boiler Heating systems (GH) and District Heating systems (DH) is getting fierce. In order to analyze the effects of heating system choice on household heating expenses, we conducted a survey of household heating expenses and behaviors for 200 GH households and 200 DH households who adjoin each other. Given identical heating conditions, heating systems had little effect on surveyed households’ heating bills. DH was estimated to be cheaper by 7 percent, but GH households took 4 percent off their bills with more active saving behaviors, so the effective cost difference between the two types of heating systems was only 3 percent. Using heat-insulating products or wearing long underwear were evaluated to be much more effective for trimming heating bills than switching to DH would be. These two heating system businesses should be more interested in and do more research on household heating behaviors, rather than to keep spending resources debating the economic feasibility of either system. From the government’s standpoint, more effective energy conservation can be achieved by improving household heating behaviors through public promotions or campaigns.