Anonymous, "If there was a government-issued shelter-in-place order and non-essential businesses were closed, what would you do if you lost heat? (Q16 S + W 2020)", contributed by Briana Leone and Alison Kenner, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 22 April 2021, accessed 23 July 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/if-there-was-government-issued-shelter-place-order-and-non-essential-businesses-were-1
Critical Commentary
The chart here reflects answers collected from Question #16 of the Spring 2020 and Winter 2020 surveys, which asked: “If there was a government-issued shelter-in-place order and non-essential businesses were closed, what would you do if you lost heat?” The structured responses for this question:
Call my landlord.
Call an HVAC company.
Call my utility company.
See if I could figure it out myself.
Ask someone I know works with heaters to fix it.
I don’t know.
Wait until the order is lifted to act on it.
Other:
A total of 159 respondents answered this question. The following was collected:
23 respondents would call their landlord
7 respondents would call their HVAC company
22 respondents would call their utility company
1 said they would call the city or the heater hotline
13 respondents would try to figure it out themselves
9 respondents would ask someone they know works with heaters to fix it
18 respondents said they didn’t know
10 respondents would wait until the order is lifted to act on it
28 respondents would purchase or use space heaters (whether this be electric or gas)
15 respondents would ask for help from family or friends
13 respondents said they would try to wear as many layers as possible
4 respondents would use their fireplace
2 respondents noted they would do the same as they answered to question #15
1 respondent would use a backup generator
The data was produced by the Shifting Energy Demands in COVID-19 Survey, which has been administered to 169 people over two time periods. The Spring 2020 survey was administered to 86 people between May and June, and the Winter 2020 survey was administered to 83 people between December 2020 and March 2021. Visit the Shifting Energy Demands in COVID-19 - Spring + Winter 2020 Survey Results page to view more data from our survey. The project is approved by Drexel’s IRB.