Initial effects of a community-based initiative for energy saving: an experimental analysis

Abstract

Can community-based behavioural intervention reduce energy use in the home? We report on initial data from an ongoing matched case and control field experiment on energy saving. Household energy use in 175 households is measured using monitoring equipment, recording electrical power consumption and temperature. Participants in treatment and control groups received improvements to the thermal insulation of their homes. A behavioural intervention in the treatment group began with a 2 hour workshop on energy saving led by a community-based environmental group. We find some evidence of reductions in electrical power over the period of analysis, compared to the estimated counterfactual, but no evidence of reduced spatial heating or baseload power. The data are consistent with a substantial effect lasting over 3 months, although this cannot be inferred with confidence because of high variance. We explore the policy implications of the finding that a relatively modest level of community intervention has potentially substantial impact on energy use.

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Identifiers

ORCID for P.A. James: orcid.org/0000-0002-2694-7054

ORCID for N. Woodman: orcid.org/0000-0002-5571-0451

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