However, this would require a radical change because, in a country like Romania, most of the apartments are either heated with natural gas or depend on the local heating systems.
According to “Living in Europe” study, only 1% of the Romanians use solar energy for heating their homes and another 1% have developed systems based on geothermal energy.
Elsewhere in Europe, people also prefer solar for home heating. 61% of Hungarians and 60% of Italians would opt for a solar-heated home, while the people least interested in heat from the sun are the British (38%).
In many central European countries, wood is a much used fuel. Almost a third (31%) of Hungarians use this source of energy for heating, followed by the Czechs (20%) and Romanians (19 %).
At the same time, 10% of the Romanians said they use electric heaters and radiators, compared with 18% in Great Britain and only 1% in Italy.
Coal and oil only play an insignificant role in the home heating market in eastern parts of Central Europe, contrasting with the commonly held view that these fuels are still widely used across Central and Eastern Europe, according to the study.
For the “Living in Europe” study, E.ON and Kantar EMNID questioned around 8,000 people in Germany, the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Turkey and Hungary in December 2016.