IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v49y2012icp53-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experiencing fuel poverty. Coping strategies of low-income households in Vienna/Austria

Author

Listed:
  • Brunner, Karl-Michael
  • Spitzer, Markus
  • Christanell, Anja

Abstract

Until the present day, research on fuel poverty focussing on the point of view of those concerned is few and far between. The present paper aims at filling this gap, analysing experiences with and behavioural responses to fuel poverty. It examines the day-to-day energy situation of households, which are poor/at-risk-of-poverty and/or suffering from fuel poverty in a case study conducted in the Austrian capital Vienna. Qualitative interviews provide the data for investigating the relevant factors in causing fuel poverty (among those, bad housing conditions, outdated appliances, financial problems), and provide a basis for discussion about the respective behavioural strategies of the people concerned. The results show that the ways of handling this problematic situation vary greatly and that people follow different strategies when it comes to inventing solutions for coping with the restrictions and finding ways of satisfying at least a part of their basic energy needs. Nonetheless, it also clearly surfaces that the scope of action is limited in many cases, which in turn only supports the claim that changes in the overall conditions are essential.

Suggested Citation

  • Brunner, Karl-Michael & Spitzer, Markus & Christanell, Anja, 2012. "Experiencing fuel poverty. Coping strategies of low-income households in Vienna/Austria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 53-59.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:53-59
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.076
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511009748
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.076?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilbertson, Jan & Stevens, Maryjane & Stiell, Bernadette & Thorogood, Nicki, 2006. "Home is where the hearth is: Grant recipients' views of England's Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (Warm Front)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 946-956, August.
    2. O'Sullivan, Kimberley C. & Howden-Chapman, Philippa L. & Fougere, Geoff, 2011. "Making the connection: The relationship between fuel poverty, electricity disconnection, and prepayment metering," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 733-741, February.
    3. Catherine Waddams Price & Karl Brazier & Khac Pham & Laurence Mathieu & Wenjia Wang, 2007. "Identifying Fuel Poverty Using Objective and Subjective Measures," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2007-11, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell & Farrell, Lisa, 2020. "Fuel poverty and subjective wellbeing," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Muhammad Sharif & Farzana Naheed Khan, 2023. "Unveiling the Implications of Energy Poverty for Educational Attainments in Pakistan: A Multidimensional Analysis," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(5), pages 472-483, September.
    3. Jean-Michel Glachant, 2012. "Regulating Networks in the New Economy," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 3(1).
    4. Rocha, Marta & Baddeley, Michelle & Pollitt, Michael & Weeks, Melvyn, 2019. "Addressing self-disconnection among prepayment energy consumers: A behavioural approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 273-286.
    5. Mallika Chawla & Michael G. Pollitt, 2012. "Energy-efficiency and environmental policies & income supplements in the UK: Their evolution and distributional impact in relation to domestic energy bills," Working Papers EPRG 1227, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    6. Hutchinson, Emma J. & Wilkinson, Paul & Hong, Sung H. & Oreszczyn, Tadj, 2006. "Can we improve the identification of cold homes for targeted home energy-efficiency improvements?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(11), pages 1198-1209, November.
    7. Davillas, Apostolos & Burlinson, Andrew & Liu, Hui-Hsuan, 2022. "Getting warmer: Fuel poverty, objective and subjective health and well-being," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    8. Howden-Chapman, Philippa & Viggers, Helen & Chapman, Ralph & O’Sullivan, Kimberley & Telfar Barnard, Lucy & Lloyd, Bob, 2012. "Tackling cold housing and fuel poverty in New Zealand: A review of policies, research, and health impacts," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 134-142.
    9. Oseni, Musiliu O., 2015. "Assessing the consumers’ willingness to adopt a prepayment metering system in Nigeria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 154-165.
    10. Elinor Chisholm & Kimberley O’Sullivan, 2017. "Using Twitter to Explore (un)Healthy Housing: Learning from the #Characterbuildings Campaign in New Zealand," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, November.
    11. Du, Juntao & Song, Malin & Xie, Bing, 2022. "Eliminating energy poverty in Chinese households: A cognitive capability framework," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 373-384.
    12. Mallika Chawla & Michael G. Pollitt, 2013. "Energy-efficiency and Environmental Policies & Income Supplements in the UK: Evolution and Distributional Impacts on Domestic Energy Bills," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    13. Burlinson, Andrew & Davillas, Apostolos & Law, Cherry, 2022. "Pay (for it) as you go: Prepaid energy meters and the heat-or-eat dilemma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    14. Yiming Xiao & Han Wu & Guohua Wang & Hong Mei, 2021. "Mapping the Worldwide Trends on Energy Poverty Research: A Bibliometric Analysis (1999–2019)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-22, February.
    15. Paudel, Jayash, 2021. "Why Are People Energy Poor? Evidence From Ethnic Fractionalization," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    16. Ana Raquel Nunes, 2018. "The contribution of assets to adaptation to extreme temperatures among older adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, November.
    17. Wong, Jason Chun Yu & Blankenship, Brian & Urpelainen, Johannes & Balani, Kanika & Ganesan, Karthik & Bharadwaj, Kapardhi, 2022. "Understanding electricity billing preferences in rural and urban India: Evidence from a conjoint experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    18. Thomson, Hilary & Thomas, Sian, 2015. "Developing empirically supported theories of change for housing investment and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 205-214.
    19. Zhang, Dayong & Li, Jiajia & Han, Phoumin, 2019. "A multidimensional measure of energy poverty in China and its impacts on health: An empirical study based on the China family panel studies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 72-81.
    20. Berry, Stephen & Whaley, David & Davidson, Kathryn & Saman, Wasim, 2014. "Near zero energy homes – What do users think?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 127-137.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:53-59. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.