IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v65y2014icp455-464.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors influencing perceptions of domestic energy information: Content, source and process

Author

Listed:
  • Simcock, Neil
  • MacGregor, Sherilyn
  • Catney, Philip
  • Dobson, Andrew
  • Ormerod, Mark
  • Robinson, Zoe
  • Ross, Simon
  • Royston, Sarah
  • Marie Hall, Sarah

Abstract

Reducing household energy consumption is an essential element of the UK Government's carbon reduction strategy. Whilst increased knowledge alone will not necessarily lead to tangible actions on the part of consumers, knowledge of various kinds is, we argue, still important if domestic energy usage is to be reduced. In an attempt to ‘educate’ the public, governments have typically resorted to ‘mass information’ campaigns that have been considered largely unsuccessful. Yet understanding what alternative forms of learning could be cultivated has been limited by the dearth of research that explores whether and why people consider information about energy and energy saving to be useful. By exploring this, we can move towards an understanding of how knowledge about energy saving can be better shared and communicated, enabling more meaningful learning to take place. Drawing on in-depth qualitative data with fifty-five participants, this paper highlights a range of factors that affect perceptions of energy information. It argues that these factors are not discrete, but are interlinked. A fundamentally different model of knowledge exchange is needed for more effective learning about energy saving to occur. A number of implications for policy are proposed in our conclusions.

Suggested Citation

  • Simcock, Neil & MacGregor, Sherilyn & Catney, Philip & Dobson, Andrew & Ormerod, Mark & Robinson, Zoe & Ross, Simon & Royston, Sarah & Marie Hall, Sarah, 2014. "Factors influencing perceptions of domestic energy information: Content, source and process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 455-464.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:65:y:2014:i:c:p:455-464
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513010604
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Upham, Paul & Shackley, Simon, 2006. "The case of a proposed 21.5 MWe biomass gasifier in Winkleigh, Devon: Implications for governance of renewable energy planning," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(15), pages 2161-2172, October.
    2. Darby, Sarah, 2006. "Social learning and public policy: Lessons from an energy-conscious village," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 2929-2940, November.
    3. Gianluigi Galeotti & Pierre Salmon & Ronald Wintrobe, 2000. "Competition and Structure: The Political Economy of Collective Decisions," Post-Print hal-00445583, HAL.
    4. Faiers, Adam & Cook, Matt & Neame, Charles, 2007. "Towards a contemporary approach for understanding consumer behaviour in the context of domestic energy use," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 4381-4390, August.
    5. Ueno, Tsuyoshi & Sano, Fuminori & Saeki, Osamu & Tsuji, Kiichiro, 2006. "Effectiveness of an energy-consumption information system on energy savings in residential houses based on monitored data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 166-183, February.
    6. Eden, Sally & Bear, Christopher & Walker, Gordon, 2008. "The sceptical consumer? Exploring views about food assurance," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 624-630, December.
    7. John F. Forester, 1999. "The Deliberative Practitioner: Encouraging Participatory Planning Processes," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561220, April.
    8. Hargreaves, Tom & Nye, Michael & Burgess, Jacquelin, 2010. "Making energy visible: A qualitative field study of how householders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 6111-6119, October.
    9. Salmela, Suvi & Varho, Vilja, 2006. "Consumers in the green electricity market in Finland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(18), pages 3669-3683, December.
    10. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9-10), pages 1082-1095, October.
    11. Galeotti,Gianluigi & Salmon,Pierre & Wintrobe,Ronald (ed.), 2000. "Competition and Structure," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521771337.
    12. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1082-1095.
    13. Henryson, Jessica & Hakansson, Teresa & Pyrko, Jurek, 2000. "Energy efficiency in buildings through information - Swedish perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 169-180, March.
    14. J Burgess & C M Harrison & P Filius, 1998. "Environmental Communication and the Cultural Politics of Environmental Citizenship," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(8), pages 1445-1460, August.
    15. Steg, Linda, 2008. "Promoting household energy conservation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4449-4453, December.
    16. Owens, Susan & Driffill, Louise, 2008. "How to change attitudes and behaviours in the context of energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4412-4418, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Buchanan, Kathryn & Russo, Riccardo & Anderson, Ben, 2014. "Feeding back about eco-feedback: How do consumers use and respond to energy monitors?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 138-146.
    2. Burchell, Kevin & Rettie, Ruth & Roberts, Tom C., 2016. "Householder engagement with energy consumption feedback: the role of community action and communications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 178-186.
    3. Khosrowpour, Ardalan & Xie, Yimeng & Taylor, John E. & Hong, Yili, 2016. "One size does not fit all: Establishing the need for targeted eco-feedback," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 523-530.
    4. Mi, Lingyun & Gan, Xiaoli & Sun, Yuhuan & Lv, Tao & Qiao, Lijie & Xu, Ting, 2021. "Effects of monetary and nonmonetary interventions on energy conservation: A meta-analysis of experimental studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Francisco, Abigail & Truong, Hanh & Khosrowpour, Ardalan & Taylor, John E. & Mohammadi, Neda, 2018. "Occupant perceptions of building information model-based energy visualizations in eco-feedback systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 220-228.
    6. Goggins, Gary & Rau, Henrike & Moran, Paul & Fahy, Frances & Goggins, Jamie, 2022. "The role of culture in advancing sustainable energy policy and practice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Palm, Alvar & Lantz, Björn, 2020. "Information dissemination and residential solar PV adoption rates: The effect of an information campaign in Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    8. Van Dael, Miet & Lizin, Sebastien & Swinnen, Gilbert & Van Passel, Steven, 2017. "Young people’s acceptance of bioenergy and the influence of attitude strength on information provision," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 417-430.
    9. Khosrowpour, Ardalan & Jain, Rishee K. & Taylor, John E. & Peschiera, Gabriel & Chen, Jiayu & Gulbinas, Rimas, 2018. "A review of occupant energy feedback research: Opportunities for methodological fusion at the intersection of experimentation, analytics, surveys and simulation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 304-316.
    10. Esmene Shukru & Leyshon Michael, 2019. "The Role of Rural Heterogeneity in Knowledge Mobilisation and Sociotechnical Transitions: Reflections from a Study on Electric Vehicles as an Alternative Technology for Cornwall, UK," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 11(4), pages 661-671, December.
    11. Barjaková, Martina & Belton, Cameron & Purcell, Karl & Lunn, Pete, 2021. "Efficient ways of communicating time-of-use electricity tariffs in Ireland: Plain and simple," Papers WP704, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Valor, Carmen & Escudero, Carmen & Labajo, Victoria & Cossent, Rafael, 2019. "Effective design of domestic energy efficiency displays: A proposed architecture based on empirical evidence," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Shen, Meng & Young, Robert & Cui, Qingbin, 2016. "The normative feedback approach for energy conservation behavior in the military community," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 19-32.
    14. Shucai Bai & Fangyi Li & Wu Xie, 2022. "Green but Unpopular? Analysis on Purchase Intention of Heat Pump Water Heaters in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yue, Ting & Long, Ruyin & Chen, Hong, 2013. "Factors influencing energy-saving behavior of urban households in Jiangsu Province," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 665-675.
    2. Camara, N’Famory & Xu, Deyi & Binyet, Emmanuel, 2018. "Enhancing household energy consumption: How should it be done?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 669-681.
    3. Holly Berman & Rachael Shwom & Cara Cuite, 2019. "Becoming FEW Conscious: A Conceptual Typology of Household Behavior Change Interventions Targeting the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-24, September.
    4. Šćepanović, Sanja & Warnier, Martijn & Nurminen, Jukka K., 2017. "The role of context in residential energy interventions: A meta review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1146-1168.
    5. Lillemo, Shuling Chen, 2014. "Measuring the effect of procrastination and environmental awareness on households' energy-saving behaviours: An empirical approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 249-256.
    6. Sweeney, Jillian C. & Kresling, Johannes & Webb, Dave & Soutar, Geoffrey N. & Mazzarol, Tim, 2013. "Energy saving behaviours: Development of a practice-based model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 371-381.
    7. Buckley, Penelope, 2020. "Prices, information and nudges for residential electricity conservation: A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Du, Limin & Guo, Jin & Wei, Chu, 2017. "Impact of information feedback on residential electricity demand in China," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 324-334.
    9. Spandagos, Constantine & Ng, Tze Ling, 2018. "Fuzzy model of residential energy decision-making considering behavioral economic concepts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 611-625.
    10. Kaplowitz, Michael D. & Thorp, Laurie & Coleman, Kayla & Kwame Yeboah, Felix, 2012. "Energy conservation attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors in science laboratories," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 581-591.
    11. Ayoubi, Charles & Thurm, Boris, 2020. "Pro-environmental behavior and morality: An economic model with heterogeneous preferences," OSF Preprints w8afg, Center for Open Science.
    12. Agarwal, Sumit & Sing, Tien Foo & Sultana, Mahanaaz, 2022. "Public media campaign and energy conservation: A natural experiment in Singapore," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    13. Gangale, Flavia & Mengolini, Anna & Onyeji, Ijeoma, 2013. "Consumer engagement: An insight from smart grid projects in Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 621-628.
    14. Akito Ozawa & Ryota Furusato & Yoshikuni Yoshida, 2017. "Tailor-Made Feedback to Reduce Residential Electricity Consumption: The Effect of Information on Household Lifestyle in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-23, March.
    15. Bernadeta Gołębiowska & Anna Bartczak & Mikołaj Czajkowski, 2020. "Energy Demand Management and Social Norms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-20, July.
    16. Vesterberg, Mattias, 2017. "Power to the people: Electricity demand and household behavior," Umeå Economic Studies 942, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    17. Christian Cordes & Joshua Henkel, 2022. "Enhanced "Green Nudging": Tapping the Channels of Cultural Transmission," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2208, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    18. Elbaz Shimon & Zaiţ Adriana, 2016. "Efficient Use of Behavioral Tools to Reduce Electricity Demand of Domestic Consumers," Scientific Annals of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 63(s1), pages 89-107, December.
    19. Baddeley, M., 2011. "Energy, the Environment and Behaviour Change: A survey of insights from behavioural economics," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1162, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Anna Kowalska-Pyzalska & Katarzyna Byrka & Jakub Serek, 2020. "How to Foster the Adoption of Electricity Smart Meters? A Longitudinal Field Study of Residential Consumers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:65:y:2014:i:c:p:455-464. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.