Examining the scale of the Behaviour Energy Efficiency Continuum

John A. “Skip” Laitner, Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, and Vanessa McKinney, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, USA

Keywords

behaviour, energy efficiency, conservation, lifestyle, program impact, Monte Carlo simulation, engineering estimates, policy-induced savings

Abstract

There is a burgeoning interest in the “human dimension” of energy use. As but one example, the second annual Behavior, Energy, and Climate Conference (co-convened by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, and the California Institute for Energy and Environment) exceeded capacity almost six weeks before the November 2008 conference date (see, for example, the conference website at http://www.BECCconference.org). At the same time, many analysts suggest that, yes, behaviour-oriented programs provide a nice way to help deploy smart technologies but that they are, essentially, boutique or niche strategies; they can only help round out a technology-based deployment effort. We suggest to the contrary; elements of the behaviour or human dimension may have a surprising scale which rivals a pure technology-based perspective in terms of expected efficiency gains.

In this paper we highlight the potential impact of changed habits, lifestyles and technology-based behaviours in terms of potential energy savings within the United States for the residential sector. We explore the level of potential savings along what we call a Behaviour Energy Response Continuum. In other words, we explore the energy savings if different motivations and habits drove a different behaviour, and if different lifestyles similarly drove a different behaviour as they all, in turn, affect energy consumption. Preliminary research suggests that changed behaviours might reduce household use of energy by about 22 percent within the United States. In this paper we characterize the elements along this behaviour continuum, estimate the potential impact, and describe potential next steps in the needed research.