Page 24 - Gi February 2019 - flipbook

PUTTING THE

CONSUMER FIRST

The third inquiry in Carbon Connect’s Future Gas Series smart technologies, will require
has now been launched. Here, we look at how this inquiry consumers to think more carefully
about how they heat different areas
hopes to put consumers at the heart of energy policy and of their homes.
how you can get involved Installing low carbon heating will
cause disruption and may require
he consumer will be crucial interacts with the energy system must extensive and expensive upgrades to
in the success of a transition undergo a radical change. houses, and the benefits may not
to a low carbon energy They will need to be open to new necessarily be tangible or obvious. The
system. Currently, the technologies; changing to lower public may also not get a say in what
T energy system is just part of carbon behaviours and becoming technology they ultimately end up with
life for most: an instant commodity, ‘prosumers’ of energy. in the intimacy of their own homes.
available at the click of a switch. Nowhere will this change be more For this reason, it is vital that we
Where energy comes from, and how apparent than in decarbonised heat. develop an understanding not only
our behaviour affects its consumption, New heating technologies will be of the perception and attitudes of
is not generally a major consideration unfamiliar; they will heat the home in consumers towards their heating
in day-to-day life. But, if we are to a different way and to a different systems and different low carbon
transition to a low or zero carbon temperature than gas-powered heating technologies, but also of
energy system, the way the public heating, and, in combination with how we can engage consumers in
heat, who is best placed to engage
them, and how a transition to low
It is vital that we develop an carbon heat can tie into the public’s
wider concerns about the energy
understanding not only of the perception system, including fairness,
and attitudes of consumers towards transparency and affordability.
Good public engagement with
their heating systems and different low the transition to low carbon heat
carbon heating technologies, but also of will be just as key to its success as
how practical aspects of the transition
how we can engage consumers in heat are implemented.
Hydrogen, in particular, will require

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