Smart homes, home energy management systems and real-time feedback: Lessons for influencing household energy consumption from a Swedish field study

Abstract Home energy management systems (HEMS), providing energy feedback and smart features through in-home displays, have the potential to support more sustainable household decisions concerning energy consumption. However, recent findings from European smart metering trials have reduced the optimism, suggesting only modest savings from energy feedback. In this paper, we investigate the potential of HEMS to foster reductions in energy use, focusing on a population segment of particular relevance; high-income and highly educated households, considered as early adopters of smart grid technologies. Covering 154 households participating in a field trial in a sustainable city district in Stockholm, Sweden during one year, this study draws on the analyses of smart meter electricity and hot tap water data and in-depth interviews to provide an increased understanding of how feedback and features are perceived, used, and acted upon, and resulting effects on awareness, behavior, and consumption. Our results show that impact on energy consumption varies widely across individual households, suggesting that households respond to energy feedback highly individually. Although HEMS may lead to increased awareness of energy consumption, as well as increased home comfort, several obstacles for energy consumption behavioral change are identified. Drawing from these findings, we suggest policy implications and key issues for future research.

[1]  S. Schwartz,et al.  A Normative Decision Making Model of Altruism , 1981 .

[2]  C. Vlek,et al.  The effect of tailored information, goal setting, and tailored feedback on household energy use, energy-related behaviors, and behavioral antecedents. , 2007 .

[3]  Yolande Strengers,et al.  Smart Energy Technologies in Everyday Life: Smart Utopia? , 2013 .

[4]  Will Gans,et al.  Smart Meter Devices and the Effect of Feedback on Residential Electricity Consumption: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Northern Ireland , 2011 .

[5]  L. Lutzenhiser.  Social and Behavioral Aspects of Energy use , 1993 .

[6]  J. Thøgersen,et al.  Feedback on Household Electricity Consumption: Learning and Social Influence Processes , 2011 .

[7]  Miriam Fischlein,et al.  Information Strategies and Energy Conservation Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Studies from 1975 to 2012 , 2013 .

[8]  Sebastian Gölz,et al.  What motivates people to use energy feedback systems? A multiple goal approach to predict long-term usage behaviour in daily life , 2016 .

[9]  Corinna Fischer.  Feedback on household electricity consumption: a tool for saving energy? , 2008 .

[10]  Michael Nye,et al.  Making energy visible: A qualitative field study of how householders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors , 2010 .

[11]  C. Vlek,et al.  Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour : An integrative review and research agenda , 2009 .

[12]  R. Gifford,et al.  Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: a review. , 2014, International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie.

[13]  Michael Nye,et al.  Keeping energy visible? Exploring how householders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors in the longer term , 2013 .

[14]  Hanne Sæle,et al.  The Effects of In-Home Displays—Revisiting the Context , 2015 .

[15]  Frank C. Leeming,et al.  Critical Review of Behavioral Interventions to Preserve the Environment , 1993 .

[16]  Birgit Mack,et al.  An analysis of smart metering information systems: A psychological model of self-regulated behavioural change , 2015 .

[17]  Tom Hargreaves.  Beyond energy feedback , 2018 .

[18]  P. Stern.  New Environmental Theories: Toward a Coherent Theory of Environmentally Significant Behavior , 2000 .

[19]  S. Karjalainen.  Consumer preferences for feedback on household electricity consumption , 2011 .

[20]  Inge Røpke,et al.  Constructing users in the smart grid—insights from the Danish eFlex project , 2013 .

[21]  P. Wesley Schultz,et al.  Using in-home displays to provide smart meter feedback about household electricity consumption: A randomized control trial comparing kilowatts, cost, and social norms , 2015 .

[22]  Gj Raw,et al.  Energy Demand Research Project: final analysis , 2011 .

[23]  Riccardo Russo,et al.  The question of energy reduction: The problem(s) with feedback , 2015 .

[24]  M. Newborough,et al.  Energy-use information transfer for intelligent homes : Enabling energy conservation with central and local displays , 2007 .

[25]  Fulvio Corno,et al.  Home energy consumption feedback: A user survey , 2012 .

[26]  Rich Ling,et al.  Measured energy savings from a more informative energy bill , 1995 .

[27]  Michael Nye,et al.  Re-materialising energy use through transparent monitoring systems , 2008 .

[28]  Gilles Guerassimoff,et al.  Enhancing energy efficiency and technical and marketing tools to change people's habits in the long-term , 2015 .

[29]  Sebastian Gölz,et al.  Does feedback usage lead to electricity savings? Analysis of goals for usage, feedback seeking, and consumption behavior , 2017 .

[30]  Nils Brandt,et al.  Household responsiveness to residential demand response strategies: Results and policy implications from a Swedish field study , 2018, Energy Policy.

[31]  E. Matthies,et al.  Enhancing informational strategies for supporting residential electricity saving: Identifying potential and household characteristics in Germany , 2016 .

[32]  B. Blazic,et al.  Effects of customized consumption feedback on energy efficient behaviour in low-income households , 2016 .

[33]  Paulo Peixoto,et al.  The potential of energy behaviours in a smart(er) grid: Policy implications from a Portuguese exploratory study , 2016 .

[34]  Gwendolyn Brandon,et al.  REDUCING HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE FIELD STUDY , 1999 .

[35]  Tomas Moe Skjølsvold,et al.  Users, design and the role of feedback technologies in the Norwegian energy transition: An empirical study and some radical challenges , 2017 .

[36]  Stephen Hall,et al.  Values in the Smart Grid: The co-evolving political economy of smart distribution , 2014 .

[37]  Madeleine Broman Toft,et al.  Exploring private consumers’ willingness to adopt Smart Grid technology , 2015 .

[38]  Tom Roberts,et al.  Householder engagement with energy consumption feedback: the role of community action and communications , 2016 .

[39]  C. Vlek,et al.  A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation , 2005 .

[40]  William J. Kaiser,et al.  Real-time, appliance-level electricity use feedback system: How to engage users? , 2014 .

[41]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[42]  L. Mundaca,et al.  Making ‘Smart Meters’ smarter? Insights from a behavioural economics pilot field experiment in Copenhagen, Denmark , 2017 .