Brits Feel Most at Home with Gas

Almost half of all Germans believe it would be desirable to use solar energy for space heating at home, according to a ‘Living in Europe’ study by Kantar Emnid commissioned and released by E.ON. The reality is that two-thirds of German homes are heated with natural gas (47%) or oil (20%).

Elsewhere in Europe, 61% of Hungarians and 60% of Italians would prefer solar for home heating. Hungary, like the UK and the Netherlands, has a high household gas use, thanks to its own production.

The British are the least interested in solar heating: 38% would prefer to heat their homes in this way, but 36% like, or would like, gas heating. 

Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) has 90.9% of homes connected to the gas grid, according to recent UK official data.

E.ON and Kantar Emnid questioned around 8,000 people in Germany, UK, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Turkey and Hungary in December 2016 for their study, which also revealed that wood is still used for home-heating in 31% of Hungarian, 20% of Czech and 19% of Romanian homes.

Mark Smedley