The Importance of Technology and Fuel Choice in the Analysis of Utility-Sponsored Conservation Strategies for Residential Water Heating

State-of-the-art residential energy demand models explicitly address consumer choices concerning fuels and fuel-using equipment (Arthur D. Little, Inc., 1981; Cambridge Systematics, Inc., 1981; Hartman, 1979, 1982a, b; Hartman and Wallace, 1982; Hausman, 1979; Hirst and Carney, 1978). However, these residential models have focused primarily on the measurement of conditional fuel demand and the analysis of fuel choice. One of their weaknesses is the incomplete treatment of technology choice.