The Home Energy Study: providing feedback on domestic electricity consumption Event

The CHARM Home Energy Study, set out to explore the effects of providing householders with feedback on the amount of electricity they were consuming. The study used a quasi-randomised controlled experimental design to test the impacts of two types of feedback over a period of 18 weeks: feedback on a household’s own consumption and feedback that also included average figures for others in the neighbourhood. The project monitored how much electricity participants used and recorded how often they looked at the feedback provided. In addition, participants completed pre- and post-study surveys and a number of householders were interviewed. The research provides some support for the role of feedback in reducing electricity consumption but questions the need to complement feedback on individual usage with social norms feedback. Furthermore, it suggests that in order to facilitate the identification of particular behaviours that are ‘wasteful’, feedback should be shown in a form that allows users to relate their consumption to their practices – for instance, in hourly or half-hourly time periods.