Users in Finland have invented modifications and improvements in three key home renewable energy technologies: heat pumps, wood pellet systems, and ground source heat pumps. Over 100 user inventions were identified across the different technologies, though few were truly novel innovations. Most improved existing systems in ways that increased benefits for individual users but had drawbacks that made them unsuitable for mass production. User innovation capitalized on locally applicable customizations. While highly concentrated among a small number of active users, implications include examining user inventions to proliferate solutions and involving lead users to support technology development and market creation.

1. User innovation in sustainable
home energy technologies
Sampsa Hyysalo* ^
Jouni Juntunen*
Stephanie Freeman*
*Aalto University, School of Business, Dept. of Management and International Business,
Helsinki, Finland
^ Aalto Univrersity, School of Design, Art and Architecture, Dept. of Design, Helsinki, Finland

2. User innovation in renewables
• User innovation has been documented to occur in
– Biomass heating systems and solar collectors in Austria (Ornetzeder
and Rohracher, 2006)
– Wind turbine cooperatives in Denmark (Jorgensen and Karnoe, 1995;
Karnøe, 1996)
– Energy efficient buildings in Germany (Ornetzeder and Rohracher,
2006
– Straw bale housing in the US (Seyfang, 2009),
• Finland as a ―hard case‖
– No large producers—no ―supplier ecology‖
– Wide availability of district heating systems and low energy and
electricity price backed by recent pro nuclear power decisions
– Weak signs of renewable energy activism that could explain user
inventiveness

3. Research Question
What, where and how significantly users invent renewable energy technologies
in residential homes?

4. Data & Methods
• The main Finnish forums www.lampopumput.info, and www.maalampofoorumi.fi ,
www.pellettikeskustelu.fi
– E.g. Heat pump forum (www.lampopumput.info): 202 875 posts, 12 700 threads by over
3943 registered users in 5 years, by Nov 2012 viewed over 55 000 000 times
• Sampling: overview of all major categories by going through 40-100 thread headings
and following 5-20 threads in detail per category
• Coverage: Key threads such as those in ―own modifications and improvements‖
where user designs and alterations were centered, 1206 discussion threads in total
• Semi-structured Interviews:
– 30-120 minutes
– 35 users
– 5 companies
• Analysis: posts and interviews coded for inventions, background, support given and
received, learning, forum activities, development pathways,
• Evaluation: The found user inventions by three experts

5. User inventions in Finland
• 105 inventions in heat
pumps
• 87 in wood pellet burning
systems
• User system level designs
• User modifications
• User hacks, add-ons,
relocating, repurposing

7. DIY Air-Water-
Heat-Pump & Self
made control
logic

8. Air Heat Pump Diagram
1-2 Installation location
3 Installation conditions
4-12 Melting mechanism of bottom
cover
13-16 Melting mechanism of collector
outdoor coil
17-20 Add-on for the outdoor unit
21-26 Channelling of the water out of the
unit
27-30 Handling water outside of the unit
31 Refrigerant fluid
32-35 Hot water tank
36 Water circulation
37-51 Repurposing (air-to-air pump to
air-to-water)
52 Repurposing of air-to-air to
geothermal pump
53 Repurposing swimming pool HP
to Air-to-water HP
54 Repurposing of internal unit
55 Utilization of cooled air from
outdoor unit
56-60 Add-on for internal unit
61 Mechanical structure
62-65 Sensors in internal unit
66-75 Add-on for monitoring and
controlling the overall system
76-79 System level design

9. Ground Source Heat Pump Diagram
1-8 Add-on for monitoring and controlling the
overall unit performance
9-12 Add-on for monitoring ground heat
exchanger
13-17 Coil location or modified use of coil and well
18 System level design
19-20 Water piping
21-22 Well
23 Add-on for control logic
24-25 External hot water tank as add-on
26 Heat distribution system

10. Wood Pellet Diagram
1-11 Burner
12-22 Pellet Boiler System
23-24 Burner Control
25-27 Pellet Auger
28-32 Cyclon
33-37 Indoor silo
38-46 Outdoor silo
47-51 Measurement
52-60 Automation
61 Exhaust gas vacuum
62 Hot water tank
63-86 Other pellet burning systems
87 Pellet Production

11. Summary of Innovation rating: 3 specialist reviewers
Inventiveness Ease of
Implementation
Diffusion Potential Energy Saving
Potential

12. Correlations
• Inventive modifications were thus evaluated as more difficult to
implement but had higher diffusion potential than incrementally inventive
solutions.
• The inventions that resulted in higher energy savings were also more
difficult to implement and had less diffusion potential.

13. What, where and how significantly
citizens invent ?
• In all three technologies users are able to invent in practically all parts and
subsystems of the technology : capacity invent considerable
• Few inventions new to the world, commercialized / widely proliferated
• The most user inventors built solutions that had one or several facets that
would have rendered them useless for mass producers of the systems
• A reason for why these improvements have been neglected in mass
products even when they give clear benefits to users
• User inventiveness capitalizes on locally appropriable possibilities, where
downsides do not matter, can be ignored or compensated locally
• As elsewhere highly concentrated activity, less than 0.5 % involved in
actively inventing and adopting modifications

14. Implications for energy and climate policy
• Technology development
– Examine the inventions from the perspective of what needs to
be done to proliferate them to new local markets
– Invite ‗lead-users‘ into ideation workshops to chart the future
tech. development trends
– Importance of modularity and adaptability for allowing tailoring
• Market creation
– Examining what roles are taken up by voluntary users to speed
up tech uptake; what support is missing in the market
– Invite lead-users into identifying problems and solutions to
proliferation
– Support for Internet forums and active users therein