Willingness to Pay for Energy Efficient Appliances: The Case of Lebanese Consumers

Abstract

A contingent valuation study was conducted to elicit the willingness to pay (WTP) of Lebanese citizens for five types of energy-efficient home appliances: washing machines, air conditioners, televisions, light bulbs, and refrigerators. A face-to-face survey is designed to this end, with data collection achieving a sample of 605 households geographically representative of the Lebanese population. A multivariate Tobit model was used to gauge the effects of socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes, perceptions, behavior, and experience on the WTP across all these appliances, while accounting for potential correlations between these WTP values. Findings provide evidence of the importance of several socio–demographics in determining WTP for more energy efficient appliances, such as income, education, and age, and the importance of perceptions and experience covariates, not least the implementation of energy labelling and the cost of electricity. In terms of policy implications, this study highlights the need to legally enforce a shift in payment mode from renting per capacity (kW) to purchasing per power (kWh) consumed for electricity in the back-up power sector, and the immediate introduction of a local labelling scheme for home appliances.