Equipment, affordability and occupant control as mechanisms of winter thermal inadequacy in non-housing dwellings

Source abstract

Warmth in winter is ordinarily treated as a function of two conditions: heating equipment must be present, and the household must be able to pay for its operation. A third is seldom examined because in conventional housing it is satisfied by default, namely that the occupant must be able to operate the system. Using two waves of a national survey of households outside the statutory housing stock in the Republic of Korea (2017, n = 4,272; 2022, n = 9,350 dwellings with heating equipment), we sequentially examine heating-equipment availability, thermal adequacy among equipped dwellings, and the primary reported reason for inadequacy. Thermal deprivation affects 19.1% of households. Equipment absence accounts for 13.7% of it, whereas 47.2% selected inability to adjust central heating as the primary reported reason; 15.7% of households whose heating is installed and in use remain deprived, and no eligible respondent cited equipment breakdown. Control deprivation is concentrated in small, centrally served units, declines sharply with floor area, and was not reported in units of 36 m² or more. Its share does not follow the ranking of prevalence: it dominates in commercially operated micro-units but is absent from self-built shacks, where deprivation is most widespread. An auxiliary 2022 analysis found bundled utility billing associated with heating equipment reported as unused (odds ratio 1.68, p = 0.003), an indirect cross-wave convergence rather than a direct measure of control. Thermal adequacy standards for dense residential micro-units should address operational control alongside equipment and fabric.