Introduction
Households in “Fuel Poverty” is defined as the households which need to spend more than 10% of its income on all fuel use and to heat its home to an adequate standard of warmth. Fuel Poverty is caused by three factors: low income, high fuel price and poor energy efficiency of a home. In cold climate region, people need to use heating to keep warm, but households in Fuel Poverty cannot afford to heat their house adequately. In this research, we investigated Fuel Poverty (hereafter FP) in Hokkaido with questionnaires and public statistic data.
Literature review
A report published from DECC1) indicates three household groups who have older adults, who have children, and who have people with long-term care and disabled are tend to be in FP. Sunderland3) wrote the definition and the policy in England. The policy against FP has three categories, 1st, Measures to support income for low-income households, 2nd, Measures to improve the energy efficiency of houses, 3rd, Measures to discount energy prices. The government in England has spent £41.6 billion on the measures. The measure to support income has the biggest rate, 72%. But Sunderland wrote that the most important measure is to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
Although there are many types of research about an actual situation of FP in England and other Europian countries, there is a few research for FP in Japan. The research in Europian countries indicated that there is the relationship between FP and the risk of health even in younger generations. We should immediately implement the research on FP in Northern Japan where the climate is colder than Europian countries.
Actual situation of FP in Hokkaido
We conducted a questionnaire survey in three areas to investigate the actual condition of FP in Hokkaido, The results of the questionnaire in Biei town and Sunagawa city were used to analyze the situation of FP with older adults. The result of the questionnaire in K school student was used to analyze the situation of FP with younger people.
We used the equations (1), (2), and (3) to calculate energy cost. Those costs are used to judge whether it was a household with FP. In elderly households, the FP rates are high, when the householder is female, the number of people in the household is small, and the households live in a house with low energy efficiency. In younger households, the FP rates are high, when the age of householders are under 39 or over 60, and the number of people in the households is large.
Also, we analyzed the regional situation of FP with Housing and Land Survey, 2013. As the result of the analysis. The rate in the southern Sorachi area where coal mines were located in is very high. On the other hand, the FP rates in Sapporo suburb are low. Fig. 18 and 19 indicated the relationship among FP rate, HDD, the rate of the house built before 1980, and the rate of households who have under 3M yen/year. FP rate has good correlation with the rate of the house built before 1980 and the rate of household who has income under 3M yen. But the correlation between FP rate and HDD is not better than other indexes.
