MARKAL is an energy-environment optimisation framework based on the concept of economic equilibria. Social MARKAL is an extension elaborated to put in competition tangible technologies with consumer behaviour described as virtual technology. In this paper, application of a concept initially used for residential lighting is extended to an another technology, residential heating, while changing both the scope from a city model to a country model, and the tool for TIMES model generator, the successor of the MARKAL. Residential heating, a tangible technology, is decomposed into three virtual technologies: envelope, heating system and consumer behaviour, allowing the modeller to put in competition, within the same modelling framework, technology progress and behavioural change, as a further step to design better public policies.