District Heating Expansion Strategies in Detached House Areas
(2004) In EuroHeat&Power (eng ed.) 4. p.22-26- Abstract
- District heating is well expanded in the residential areas in Sweden, although not in detached house areas, where it is often impaired with problems of low heat density, large heat losses and high construction costs. However, due to the changes on the electricity market, increased environmental concerns and technological improvements, the detached houses’ sector is a potential market for district heating.
The aim of this study was to find out what kind of strategies the Swedish district heating companies have for expansions to low heat density areas; what kind of information the companies gather about their potential customers; what facts they base their decisions on for selection of prospect areas and for marketing... (More) - District heating is well expanded in the residential areas in Sweden, although not in detached house areas, where it is often impaired with problems of low heat density, large heat losses and high construction costs. However, due to the changes on the electricity market, increased environmental concerns and technological improvements, the detached houses’ sector is a potential market for district heating.
The aim of this study was to find out what kind of strategies the Swedish district heating companies have for expansions to low heat density areas; what kind of information the companies gather about their potential customers; what facts they base their decisions on for selection of prospect areas and for marketing purposes; and what sales activities are used to obtain a high rate of connections.
To investigate these questions, a survey was sent to all district heating companies in Sweden. Questionnaires of the companies were followed up by telephone interviews.
The study concludes that the most important factor for choosing a new expansion area is the areas close location to the existing grid. Our analysis of the information collected by the companies about their potential customers proves that the customer basically is seen as a “heat load” in the system rather than an individual with different needs and interests. Promotion campaigns in detached house areas often include the phenomenon of social diffusion where the companies use interested potential customers to promote district heating. Specific sales strategies singled out deals to a large extent with solving timing problems when converting customers’ heating systems. Value added services of district heating are rare. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/576573
- author
- Sernhed, Kerstin LU ; Abaravicius, Juozas LU and Persson, Tommy LU
- publishing date
- 2004
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- expansion strategies, District heating, sales activities, low heat density, detached houses
- in
- EuroHeat&Power (eng ed.)
- volume
- 4
- pages
- 22 - 26
- publisher
- EuroHeat&Power
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:16444382415
- ISSN
- 1613-0200
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- e10f8bf8-7f92-4ebe-85c1-94abd95750af (old id 576573)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 15:53:14
- date last changed
- 2022-01-28 07:49:33
@article{e10f8bf8-7f92-4ebe-85c1-94abd95750af,
abstract = {{District heating is well expanded in the residential areas in Sweden, although not in detached house areas, where it is often impaired with problems of low heat density, large heat losses and high construction costs. However, due to the changes on the electricity market, increased environmental concerns and technological improvements, the detached houses’ sector is a potential market for district heating. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
The aim of this study was to find out what kind of strategies the Swedish district heating companies have for expansions to low heat density areas; what kind of information the companies gather about their potential customers; what facts they base their decisions on for selection of prospect areas and for marketing purposes; and what sales activities are used to obtain a high rate of connections.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
To investigate these questions, a survey was sent to all district heating companies in Sweden. Questionnaires of the companies were followed up by telephone interviews.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The study concludes that the most important factor for choosing a new expansion area is the areas close location to the existing grid. Our analysis of the information collected by the companies about their potential customers proves that the customer basically is seen as a “heat load” in the system rather than an individual with different needs and interests. Promotion campaigns in detached house areas often include the phenomenon of social diffusion where the companies use interested potential customers to promote district heating. Specific sales strategies singled out deals to a large extent with solving timing problems when converting customers’ heating systems. Value added services of district heating are rare.}},
author = {{Sernhed, Kerstin and Abaravicius, Juozas and Persson, Tommy}},
issn = {{1613-0200}},
keywords = {{expansion strategies; District heating; sales activities; low heat density; detached houses}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{22--26}},
publisher = {{EuroHeat&Power}},
series = {{EuroHeat&Power (eng ed.)}},
title = {{District Heating Expansion Strategies in Detached House Areas}},
volume = {{4}},
year = {{2004}},
}