International Journal of Energy Sector Management

Purpose – The Kosova Government is promoting energy efficiency and the purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the efforts being made, in the form of a household survey which visited 2,370 homes in the capital city Prishtina.

Design/methodology/approach – Student teams from the American University in Kosovo (AUK) conducted the survey under faculty guidance and their collected data provide valuable information.

Findings – The survey indicates that Kosova's progress on energy efficiency is not far behind the EU requirements.

Research limitations/implications – The AUK survey results are from the most densely populated area of Prishtina and so these results will be of special interest to the city planners.

Practical implications – The survey indicates that an average of 7.58?m³ of wood is consumed per home annually. From the data for all homes, 78 per cent heat one to three rooms and for the medium-size category it was 83 per cent. For all homes in the phase 1 survey, 62 per cent spend between 10-30 per cent of family income on electricity. The weighted average of the electricity costs in a medium-size home is 63 each Winter month. The government therefore needs to effectively implement appropriate incentives or subsidies to promote a wide household energy efficiency program. Using an average wood cost of 35 to 40/m³ and the 1.525 million m³/year total consumption, the total wood revenue is 60.6 million.

Social implications – There also needs to be thousands of smaller personal investments for household high efficiency wood stoves. Both types of investments will reduce Kosova's environmental problem of particulates from ash.

Originality/value – The combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 surveys are expected to provide the most comprehensive household energy survey ever conducted in the Balkans.