Rural Resident’s Choice of Water Heater in China

This chapter studies the patterns in choice of water heaters in developing countries based on micro-level personal data, with focus on decision-making process and influential factors relating to purchase of water heaters in rural households in China. Results show that in addition to sociodemographic characteristics such as income, household size and age, information accessibility is a significant determinant in household’s decision-making process to purchase water heaters, while electricity price and subsidy policies in the “Home Appliances Going to the Countryside” program do not have much effect in promoting solar water heaters in rural China.