What effect does feedback have on energy conservation? Comparing previous household usage, neighbourhood usage, and social norms in Japan

Home Energy Reports are well-known behavioral interventions providing social comparison that compare a household's current energy usage with that of similar households. They also provide injunctive norm-based classification that indicate to recipients whether their current energy conservation habits are socially acceptable. This social comparison-based feedback has gained significant attention as an effective method for enhancing household energy conservation. However, the relative effect size of this practice, compared to other typical feedback approaches such as historical comparison (which compares a household's current and past usage), has not been investigated. This study shows two important findings derived from a large-scale randomized experiment examining the behavioral features of energy-use feedback programs. First, social comparison-based Home Energy Reports were significantly more effective than historical comparison-based Home Energy Reports. Second, households using less energy than other similar households were likely to respond positively to injunctive norm-based classification, irrespective of the type of usage comparison in Home Energy Reports. Using a large-scale experiment, our study was the first to confirm that social comparison is more effective in promoting households' energy conservation behavior than other types of usage comparisons.

Automated summary

Home Energy Reports, as a well-known behavioral intervention, use social comparison to enhance household energy conservation awareness. This study found that social comparison-based reports are more effective than historical comparison-based reports. Individuals in households that use less energy than similar households are more likely to respond positively to norm-based classifications.