In a study being presented today (02/09/11) at the Royal Geographical Society conference, I'm going to be talking about how householders respond to feedback on their energy use. This is based on two sets of interviews, conducted one year apart, with householders trialling in-home displays (IHDs) that provide them with instantaneous feedback on how much energy they're using and how much this is costing.
The government has announced that, by 2020, all UK households will be provided with IHDs to help them monitor and manage their energy use. This policy is partly based on the assumption that if householders can see how much it costs to, for example, turn a light on or use the kettle, they will think again about different energy using behaviours in order to either save money or reduce their carbon emissions. In our study, however, we found that things weren't quite so simple.
Householders learnt an enormous amount from the IHD monitors - they learnt which appliances and household routines used energy and which didn't and, with this knowledge, were able to think carefully about how they might save energy and money. At the same time, however, actually changing their behaviour wasn't so straightforward. Householders found that as often as they could work together with other householders to save energy, there were other occasions in which they had to negotiate everyday routines with other household members. For example, whilst some families cooperated to keep lights turned off, others found this more difficult and even occasionally had small arguments about who was 'wasting' the most energy.
Further, our interviews showed that once they'd learnt about their energy use by using the IHD monitors, some householders felt as if there was little support available from other sources, such as Government or from big business, to help them reduce their energy use further. This left some householders feeling as if they couldn't achieve significant financial or carbon savings without wider support.
In all, our findings suggest that the roll-out of smart meters and IHDs to all UK households by 2020 will have complex effects on household dynamics and energy use. The simplistic assumption that underpins this set of policy measures doesn't seem to hold true in most or even in many cases. What is needed is more careful consideration of how feedback on energy use is understood and used by householders, how it impacts on existing household routines and relations, and how householders can be supported to ensure that smart meters and IHDs realise their potential to help people save both carbon and money.
Tom Hargreaves
