Public Perceptions of Energy Consumption and Savings

In a national online survey, conducted by researchers at Columbia, Ohio State and Carnegie Mellon Universities, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation and recycling activities.

Key Findings:

• When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contrast to experts' recommendations.
• For a sample of 15 activities, participants underestimated energy use and savings by a factor of 2.8 on average, with small overestimates for low-energy activities and large underestimates for high-energy activities. Additional estimation and ranking tasks also yielded relatively flat functions for perceived energy use and savings.
• Across several tasks, participants with higher numeracy scores and stronger pro-environmental attitudes had more accurate perceptions.

Based on the deficiencies highlighted by these results, the study's authors suggest that well-designed efforts to improve the public's understanding of energy use and savings could pay large dividends.