Keywords: natural gas-free heating, optimization, limited cost-benefit analysis, housing clusters
To slow down the effects of climate change, CO 2 emissions must be reduced. It is a major challenge to transition the heating homes to natural gas free heating, since 85% of Dutch homes are still heated with natural gas, resulting in a very high CO 2 emission. This change has proven to be a challenge for existing housing stock since different techniques are available, but customization is essential for a successful implementation. This study aims to provide insight into the implementation of different heating techniques for a housing cluster while taking the gain, hedonic and normative aspects into account. The main stakeholder is the homeowner for whom the transformation can have a big impact. Homeowners often lack insight, which reduces their willingness to adopt energy-efficient heating techniques. To fill this gap, this thesis aims to work toward the development of a decision support tool that answers the question: How can housing clusters be supported in their transition from natural gas towards a more sustainable heating technique optimizing the implementation and taking gain (financial), hedonic (comfort-related) and normative (environmental) aspects into account? The research aims at developing a decision support tool to increase the insights into natural gas-free heating techniques and support the decision process of homeowners. The research consists of two main parts: in the first part, a limited cost-benefit analysis (LCBA), the costs and benefits have been determined for a reference housing cluster (located in neighbourhood ‘t Ven). The second part consists of the development of optimization models. The main advantage of the optimization models is that they provide quick insights into a wide variety of housing clusters, taking variables, preferences and cluster properties into account. A dashboard is created for these models, this dashboard provides the opportunity for the homeowner to interact with the optimization models. There are multiple factors influencing the decision of homeowners to implement natural gas-free renovations. When an alternative heating technique is implemented, it has multiple direct effects on the homeowner. A better understanding of the effects of each heating technique per housing cluster can be gained by optimizing the implementation of these techniques. By making these models accessible to homeowners, this group can be informed. There are multiple factors influencing the decision of homeowners to implement natural gas-free renovations. When an alternative heating technique is implemented, it has multiple direct effects on the homeowner. A better understanding of the effects of each heating technique per housing cluster can be gained by optimizing the implementation of these techniques and making these models accessible to homeowners.