Have you ever lost heat in your home? (Q15)

The chart represents the results of Question #15 from the Spring 2020 survey, which asks: “Have you ever lost heat in the home?” This question aims to understand whether respondents experienced any disruptions to their heating systems. The structured responses prepared by the research group were as follow:

Yes, my heater broke

Yes, my utilities were shut off

Yes, there was a power outage due to weather

Yes, other:

No

Other, please explain

From the 84 responses collected, data gathered follows: 

• 55 respondents did not experience disruptions to their heat. 

• 13 respondents reported that they lost heat due to weather-related outages. 

• 11 respondents noted they lost heat when their heater broke. 

• 6 respondents noted they lost heat for different reasons than those listed. 

• 1 respondent lost heat when their children were small

• 1 respondent lost heat due to wild-fire outages

• 1 respondent lost heat when their basement flooded

• 1 respondent ran out of wood

• 1 respondent lost heat when the oil company forgot to refill their oil

• Two respondents said yes and did not specify how 

Answers to this question show there is a tight coupling between heating systems and other infrastructures.

The data was produced by the Shifting Energy Demands in COVID-19 Survey - Overview, which was administered to 86 people over a six week period in May-June 2020. Visit the Shifting Energy Demands in COVID-19 - Survey Results page to view more data from our survey. The project is approved by Drexel’s IRB.