Keywords: Natural gas-free heating, optimization, limited cost-benefit analysis, housing clusters
To slow down the effects of climate change, CO2 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 CO2 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.