Comfort, Indoor Air Quality, and Energy Consumption in Low Energy Homes

This report documents the results of an in-depth evaluation of energy consumption and thermal comfort for two potential net zero-energy homes (NZEHs) in Massachusetts, as well as an indoor air quality (IAQ) evaluation performed in conjunction with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)

Field Evaluation of Programmable Thermostats

Prior research suggests that poor programmable thermostats usability may prevent their effective use to save energy. We hypothesized that home occupants with a high-usability thermostats would be more likely to use them to save energy than people with a basic thermostat. We randomly installed a high-usability thermostat in half the 77 apartments of an affordable housing complex, installing a basic thermostat in the other half. During the heating season, we collected space temperature and furnace on-off data to evaluate occupant interaction with the thermostats, foremost nighttime setbacks. We found that thermostat usability did not influence energy-saving behaviors, finding no significant difference in temperature maintained among apartments with high- and low-usability thermostats

Comfort, Indoor Air Quality, and Energy Consumption in Low Energy Homes

This report documents the results of an in-depth evaluation of energy consumption and thermal comfort for two potential net zero-energy homes (NZEHs) in Massachusetts, as well as an indoor air quality (IAQ) evaluation performed in conjunction with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)

For better or for worse? Empirical evidence of moral licensing in a behavioral energy conservation campaign

Isolated environmental campaigns focusing on defined target behaviors are rolled out to millions of households every year. Yet it is still unclear whether these programs trigger cross-domain adoption of additional environment-friendly behaviors (positive spillover) or reduced engagement elsewhere. A thorough evaluation of the real net performance of these programs is lacking. This paper investigates whether positive or perverse side effects dominate by exemplifying the impact of a water conservation campaign on electricity consumption. The study draws on daily water (10,780 data points) and weekly electricity (1386 data points) consumption data of 154 apartments in a controlled field experiment at a multifamily residence. The results show that residents who received weekly feedback on their water consumption lowered their water use (6.0% on average), but at the same time increased their electricity consumption by 5.6% compared with control subjects. Income effects can be excluded. While follow-up research is needed on the precise mechanism of the psychological process at work, the findings are consistent with the concept of moral licensing, which can more than offset the benefits of focused energy efficiency campaigns, at least in the short-term. We advocate the adoption of a more comprehensive view in environmental program design/evaluation in order to quantify and mitigate these unintended effects

Overcoming Salience Bias : How Real-Time Feedback Fosters Resource Conservation

Inattention and imperfect information bias behavior toward the salient and immediately visible. This distortion creates costs for individuals, the organizations in which they work, and society at large. We show that an effective way to overcome this bias is by making the implications of one’s behavior salient in real time, while individuals can directly adapt. In a large-scale field experiment, we gave participants real-time feedback on the resource consumption of a daily, energy-intensive activity (showering). We find that real-time feedback reduced resource consumption for the target behavior by 22%. At the household level, this led to much larger conservation gains in absolute terms than conventional policy interventions that provide aggregate feedback on resource use. High baseline users displayed a larger conservation effect, in line with the notion that real-time feedback helps eliminate “slack” in resource use. The approach is cost effective, is technically applicable to the vast majority of households, and generated savings of 1.2 kWh per day and household, which exceeds the average energy use for lighting. The intervention also shows how digitalization in our everyday lives makes information available that can help individuals overcome salience bias and act more in line with their preferences