IMPROVE – Enhancing demand-side energy reduction through informative billing strategies (original) (raw)
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Energy and Environment Research, 2012
This study explores whether the electricity bill can be used as a medium to deliver information that encourages energy conservation in Norwegian households. Two main categories of information were tested: social comparative feedback and information about the monetary savings that can be made through specific energy-saving measures. The study combines four methods. First, a focus group study gathered advice on the categories and design of information that could influence energy consumption, and addressed general issues on energy consumption. Second, a field experiment monitored actual electricity use in 1000 households over a period of 10 months. In addition, through a survey and a series of in-depth interviews, the experience of the participating households was investigated. The experiment showed no effect on actual consumption. One main barrier was that only half the sample noticed the information. This suggests that the potential for encouraging energy conservation through adding new information to the bill in Norway is limited. The bill is already quite informative and is becoming less relevant as an increasing share of consumers switch to electronic bills and direct debit, which decreases the attention they pay to their bills.
Bill me this way!–customer preferences regarding electricity bills in Sweden
2003
The liberalised electricity market in Sweden stresses the fact that the electricity companies must focus on customer satisfaction. Two major customer surveys concentrating on households' requirements concerning the electricity bill have been carried out in spring 2002. The interest in energy management lies within the fact that the electricity bill can be used as a feedback instrument to influence energy behaviour and the consumer's awareness of energy usage.
Factors influencing perceptions of domestic energy information: content, source and process
Reducing household energy consumption is an essential element of the UK Government’s carbon reduction strategy. Whilst increased knowledge alone will not necessarily lead to tangible actions on the part of consumers, knowledge of various kinds is, we argue, still important if domestic energy usage is to be reduced. In an attempt to ‘educate’ the public, governments have typically resorted to ‘mass information’ campaigns that have been considered largely unsuccessful. Yet understanding what alternative forms of learning could be cultivated has been limited by the dearth of research that explores whether and why people consider information about energy and energy saving to be useful. By exploring this, we can move towards an understanding of how knowledge about energy saving can be better shared and communicated, enabling more meaningful learning to take place. Drawing on in-depth qualitative data with fifty-five participants, this paper highlights a range of factors that affect perceptions of energy information. It argues that these factors are not discrete, but are interlinked. A fundamentally different model of knowledge exchange is needed for more effective learning about energy saving to occur. A number of implications for policy are proposed in our conclusions.
2017
One of the most pressing issues of climate policy is how to get building owners to invest in the energy efficiency of their homes. The German federal government has set the goal of decreasing the energy demand of buildings by 80 to 95 percent until 2050. One pillar of the strategy to support building owners in this task is the provision of targeted energy advice, to both motivate owners to implement an energy efficiency refurbishment and help them to choose the most efficient measures. In this paper we analysed the demand for energy advice in three German cities of the Ruhr area finding the number of energy consulting provided to be extremely low compared to the stated goals. Based on the approach of joint knowledge production we invited stakeholders from the three cities to participate in a series of workshops in order to develop ideas how to more effectively bring homeowners and energy advisors together. As a result, different energy advice experiments were co-operatively develope...
Raising Energy-Saving Awareness With The Home Energy Report
The European Proceedings of Multidisciplinary Sciences, 2019
Household electricity consumption per capita has been steadily increasing every year. Current literature on energy has largely focussed on energy efficient technologies. There has been little attention on consumer awareness of home energy use. In an effort to create awareness, Malaysia launched the Home Energy Report in 2015. However, it is not known whether the Home Energy Report has helped improve residents' energy-saving awareness. This paper seeks to examine users' feedback on the use of the Home Energy Report for improving energy-saving awareness. Thirty residents in Penang who received the Home Energy Report were interviewed. The findings showed that while the Home Energy Report is received by all participants, only 30 percent of respondents accessed it regularly at least once a month, whereas the remaining 70 percent accessed it intermittently. The study revealed mixed findings where about half of the participants shared a positive complete experience with using the Home Energy Report and the other half had a somewhat rewarding or unrewarding experience. The study concluded that the lack of user orientation to the Home Energy Report and the poor efficiency of its design operability were the underlying problems impacting the users' experience. As a result, poor experience with the Home Energy Report has hindered its effectiveness in creating energy-saving awareness. The findings reveal the limitations of the existing Home Energy Report in raising energy-saving awareness and promote a new area for future energy management research.
Users and Energy Savings - Their Perspectives and Needs
It is becoming increasingly important to create a sustainable environment for the future. This is a problem that is recognised but it still not evident what kind of solutions that would be beneficial and useful. However, one important step is to reduce the energy consumption. In Europe, 25% of the total amount of energy being consumed is consumed by private households. Hence, if private households decrease their energy consumption this would contribute to the environment in positive ways. The aim of this paper is to describe what kind of needs users have related to energy consumption and solutions for that. Our study have been carried out in a project called Smarties in which the objective is to develop solutions that stimulates users to decrease their energy consumption. This paper reports on the users needs related to their current energy consumption situation, the actions they want or can take, and the possible future solutions they want to se.
Residential Consumer Understanding of Electricity Bills
International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management
The neoclassical model of economics assumes that greater the information available, the easier it is for a consumer to make decisions. In the context of electricity usage, overwhelming amounts of information presented on energy bills and a lack of real-time information deter consumers from understanding their own energy usage and developing personalized strategies to reduce it. This study assesses the literacy levels regarding electricity bills amongst consumers in India. Regression results indicate that homes with stronger beliefs in energy conservation minimize their usage. The size of the dwelling,demographics, and the ownership of the dwelling influence literacy levels regarding electricity bills. The study had a counterintuitive finding, as the respondents were found reluctant to receive a normative comparison of their electricity bills—strange for a collectivistic cultured society like India. The study recommends making electricity bills more visually appealing and increasing ...