Enhancing energy efficiency and technical and marketing tools to change people's habits in the long-term
Résumé
Electricity consumers’ behavior is known to be hard to change and unstable. A review of smart-grid experiments and Home Energy Management Systems shows that after an initial enthusiastic phase and efforts to save energy, interest tends to wane. Most people resume former habits or leave systems running, disregarding energy-saving actions. Several cases even reveal a rebound effect, whereby people consume more energy that before the system was launched. In order to keep people focused on their own energy efficiency behavior and help them make it durable, the Grid-Teams project decided to focus on nudge marketing to assess whether this kind of service could increase users’ commitment to efficiency habits. By nudge marketing, we mean several tools to help users understand and act. The experiment helps them focus and personally handle their own electric energy impact. For this purpose, we metered forty households and built a complete Web user interface with several services including a range of energy consumption, bounds and a target to reach. In addition, a loyalty program was installed called EcoTroks™. We present how the system was built and deployed and the first results on its efficiency to keeping the households involved in an energy saving habit.