IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0224198.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thermostat wars? The roles of gender and thermal comfort negotiations in household energy use behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Nicole D Sintov
  • Lee V White
  • Hugh Walpole

Abstract

Although advanced thermostat technologies offer energy efficiency potential, these devices alone do not guarantee savings. Household occupants often deviate from thermostat programs, perhaps due to differing thermal comfort preferences, which are strong drivers of residential energy use and vary across genders. This study aims to develop an initial typology of interpersonal interactions around thermal comfort, explore the role of gender in such interactions, and examine the impacts of interactions on thermostat adjustments. Using n = 1568 diary observations collected from 112 participants, we identify three interaction types: conflicts, compromises, and agreements. Fixed effects analyses find that women are marginally more likely to report engaging in conflicts, whereas men are significantly more likely to report engaging in agreements and compromises, both of which are associated with greater likelihood of adjusting thermostats within a given day. This work represents an early step in investigating the multiply determined nature of household energy decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicole D Sintov & Lee V White & Hugh Walpole, 2019. "Thermostat wars? The roles of gender and thermal comfort negotiations in household energy use behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-16, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0224198
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224198
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0224198
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0224198&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0224198?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
    2. Sanchez, Marla C. & Brown, Richard E. & Webber, Carrie & Homan, Gregory K., 2008. "Savings estimates for the United States Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR voluntary product labeling program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2098-2108, June.
    3. Plümper, Thomas & Troeger, Vera E., 2007. "Efficient Estimation of Time-Invariant and Rarely Changing Variables in Finite Sample Panel Analyses with Unit Fixed Effects," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(2), pages 124-139, April.
    4. Plümper, Thomas & Troeger, Vera E., 2011. "Fixed-Effects Vector Decomposition: Properties, Reliability, and Instruments," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 147-164, April.
    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. Matschegg, Doris & Carlon, Elisa & Sturmlechner, Rita & Sonnleitner, Andrea & Fuhrmann, Marilene & Dißauer, Christa & Strasser, Christoph & Enigl, Monika, 2023. "Investigation of individual motives and decision paths on residential energy supply systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).

    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. Schumacher, Kim & Yang, Zhuoxiang, 2018. "The determinants of wind energy growth in the United States: Drivers and barriers to state-level development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-13.
    2. Pierre Salmon, 2013. "Decentralization and growth: what if the cross-jurisdiction approach had met a dead end?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 87-107, June.
    3. Patrik Karpaty & Patrik Gustavsson Tingvall, 2015. "Offshoring and Home Country R&D," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 655-676, April.
    4. Chi-Hong (Patrick) Tsai & Corinne Mulley & Geoffrey Clifton, 2014. "A Review of Pseudo Panel Data Approach in Estimating Short-run and Long-run Public Transport Demand Elasticities," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 102-121, January.
    5. Arouri, Mohamed El Hedi & Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Rault, Christophe & Sova, Robert & Sova, Anamaria, 2012. "Environmental Regulation and Competitiveness: Evidence from Romania," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 130-139.
    6. kos Hamburger & G bor Harangoz, 2018. "Factors Affecting the Evolution of Renewable Electricity Generating Capacities: A Panel Data Analysis of European Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 8(5), pages 161-172.
    7. Lepetit, L. & Meslier, C. & Strobel, F. & Wardhana, L., 2018. "Bank dividends, agency costs and shareholder and creditor rights," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 93-111.
    8. Thomas O'Connor & Thomas Flavin, 2013. "The Effects of Ownership Structure on Corporate Financing Decisions: Evidence from Stock Market Liberalization," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 383-405, September.
    9. Nermeen Shehata & Ahmed Salhin & Moataz El-Helaly, 2017. "Board diversity and firm performance: evidence from the U.K. SMEs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(48), pages 4817-4832, October.
    10. Pierre MANDON & Clément MATHONNAT, 2014. "Forms of Democracies and Financial Development," Working Papers 201421, CERDI.
    11. Arta Mulliqi & Nick Adnett & Mehtap Hisarciklilar & Artane Rizvanolli, 2018. "Human Capital and International Competitiveness in Europe, with Special Reference to Transition Economies," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(6), pages 541-563, November.
    12. Kokko, Ari & Gustavsson Tingvall, Patrik, 2012. "The Eurovision Song Contest, Preferences and European Trade," Ratio Working Papers 183, The Ratio Institute.
    13. Thomas O'Connor, 2012. "Investability, Corporate Governance and Firm Value," Economics Department Working Paper Series n223-12.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    14. Lumir Abdixhiku, Geoff Pugh, Iraj Hashi, 2018. "Business Tax Evasion in Transition Economies: A Cross-Country Panel Investigation," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 15(1), pages 11-36, June.
    15. Ari Kokko & Patrik Gustavsson Tingvall, 2014. "Distance, Transaction Costs, and Preferences in European Trade," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 87-120, June.
    16. Angélica Sánchez & Thomas Goda, 2018. "Corruption and the ‘Paradox of Redistribution’," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 675-693, November.
    17. Halis Kıral & Lutfi Erden, 2018. "Bilateral trade effects of fiscal devaluation: Evidence from OECD countries," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 585-606, August.
    18. David Bartolini & Raffaella Santolini, 2013. "Fiscal autonomy and quality of governance in OECD countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(1), pages 706-713.
    19. Heinemann, Friedrich & Osterloh, Steffen & Kalb, Alexander, 2014. "Sovereign risk premia: The link between fiscal rules and stability culture," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 110-127.
    20. Gilhaimé MOUANDA-MOUANDA, 2019. "Impact of Exchange rate volatility on Global Value Chains Participation Evidence from panel African countries," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 3(3), pages 29-40.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:plo:pone00:0224198. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.