This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Simple psychological interventions are often enough to encourage people to change their behavior—and this is also true when it comes to saving electricity. A new study by Mannheim-based consumer psychologist Dr.
Yavor Paunov and colleagues shows that comparing one's own electricity consumption with that of others as well as practical energy-saving tips can help reduce energy consumption. As part of the 24-week field experiment, the research team studied 140 student households in Stockholm. They compared two psychological approaches: "nudging" and "boosting." Participants in the "nudge" group received weekly feedback on how their electricity consumption compared to that of other households.
The "boost" group received appliance-specific energy-saving tips. The result: Both measures curbed the seasonal increase in electricity consumption during the winter months. Combined, this saved seven megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity.
By way of comparison, a single-person household in Germany consumes an average of about 1.2 MWh of electricity per year. "We had assumed that participants in the boost group would consume less electricity during the study period than those in the nudge group," explains study author Paunov. "Instead, both measures significantly reduced electricity consumption compared to the control group.
The effects of the two approaches did not differ significantly from one another statistically." A distinctive feature of the study is that the authors tracked actual electricity consumption over a comparatively long period of time. To date, there have been only a few studies that directly compare different energy-saving strategies. Earlier studies, for example, used simulated online scenarios, examined self-selected groups or focused on shorter time periods.
The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Lead author Paunov collected the data while working at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and wrote the paper at the University of Mannheim. The analyses also show that the greatest savings were achieved among individuals with high electricity consumption at the start of the study.
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