New Study Suggests Consumer Perceptions About Energy Savings Misguided

A New Study Reveals Misperceptions about How Americans Think and Act with Respect to Energy Consumption and Savings

Researchers from Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University surveyed 505 participants about what they could do to conserve energy and found a largely misguided understanding of the relative effectiveness of different energy-saving actions. Most surveyed were of the opinion that using less energy was a more effective approach to conservation than installing more efficient equipment.

For example, turning out the lights when leaving a room was cited by the greatest number of participants (19.6 percent) as the single most effective thing they could do to conserve energy in their homes. By contrast, only 3.2 percent cited buying more efficient appliances and only 2.1 percent cited adding insulation to their homes.

Why the Focus on "Curtailment" Versus "Efficiency?"

The researchers suggest:

"Relative to experts' recommendations, participants were overly focused on curtailment rather than efficiency, possibly because efficiency improvements almost always involved research, effort and out-of pocket costs (e.g. buying a new energy efficient appliance), whereas curtailment may be easier to imagine and incorporate into one's daily activities without any upfront costs."

While it is understandable in the current economy that many people simply can't afford to buy new appliances or upgrade their insulation, the authors were troubled by the notion that people believed small behavioral changes did just as much as major equipment upgrades. In fact, more respondents said that the single most effective thing they could do to conserve energy in their lives was "sleep more/relax more" than those that said "insulate my home."

The study went on to suggest this may be attributable to what the authors describe as a lack of concerted public communications efforts about the relative effectiveness of different energy saving measures that consumers can take. As a result, people may "believe they are doing their part to reduce energy use when they engage in low-effort, low-impact actions instead of focusing on changes that would make a bigger difference."

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