The Social Norms of Energy Saving Behavior and the UK Energy
Market
Warwick Business School
University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL
England
February 2014
Energy Saving Behavior and the UK Energy Market
Several studies have been carried out to investigate the power of social norms and how they
could be used to activate energy conservation behavior. According to Dietz et al. (2009),
behavioral interventions could reduce household direct emissions by 20%. However, some
are quite skeptical of the sustainability of behavioral change achieved through social
behavioral interventions rather than policy changes or more efficient technology production.
To this research, social norms, policy changes and efficient technology are all vital to
achieving significant energy savings. But the starting point is to understand how people
behave or make decisions within the current surrounding environment. This includes how
people reflect upon the information they perceive from the energy market, how they evaluate
their switching options, and to what extent social norms drive their decisions. Most research
bypassea defining the micro-behaviors that constitute social norms related to energy
behavior (Wood & Newborough, 2007). It is very important to understand how these microbehaviors lead people’s energy consumption in every day routine in order to specify, if
possible, the factors of social norms that have direct impact on energy behavior. Also, the
habits formulated by these micro-behaviors highly influence whether people are willing to
adopt new energy efficient technologies such as energy consumption displays (ECDs).
Designing the display systems, based on sufficient understanding of the above mentioned
factors, should guarantee that the information is structured to enforce energy saving
behavior. The designs should be simple, user friendly, and encourage consumer’s
engagement (Norman, 2002). The proposed research project involves analyzing a very large
database of data on energy consumption behavior at the University of Warwick.
The
measurements are taken in rooms in which “smart” meters have been placed, in which the
displays on the meters have been systematically varied. This research is ongoing and new
project participants will have the opportunity to suggest novel interventions, as well as to
determine how to analyse data, and indeed what data are needed. There will also be the
possibility of working with one of the big energy companies in the UK that collects big data
regarding smart meters as a method to observe energy consumption. The project definitely
needs specialized help in that area and there is an opportunity to develop this into a PhD
project. The main goal is to develop a method of data analysis that can make it easier for
companies to give meaningful and clear feedback that customers can understand. Improving
customer engagement with energy would not be possible without a flexible mode of
communication that is based on exchanging and analyzing presumably complicated data.