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Who is behaving? Consequences for energy policy of concept confusion

Ellegård, Kajsa and Palm, Jenny LU (2015) In Energies 8(8). p.7618-7637
Abstract

Policies to reduce household energy use usually target the individual customer. This is probably one explanation for the limited effect of many information policies, because two concepts with different meanings are confused: individual and household. In most contexts, an individual stands for what s/he does, but in the policy context, an individual is taken to represent the entire household. This is not problematic for a single-person household, but, in a multi-person household, activities performed by different household members influence the whole household's energy use. This paper illuminates problems arising from confusing the concepts of household and individual when developing policies to reduce household energy use. Examples... (More)

Policies to reduce household energy use usually target the individual customer. This is probably one explanation for the limited effect of many information policies, because two concepts with different meanings are confused: individual and household. In most contexts, an individual stands for what s/he does, but in the policy context, an individual is taken to represent the entire household. This is not problematic for a single-person household, but, in a multi-person household, activities performed by different household members influence the whole household's energy use. This paper illuminates problems arising from confusing the concepts of household and individual when developing policies to reduce household energy use. Examples relate to indoor space heating and energy-intensive home-based activities. The results indicate that it is analytically simple to consider individuals at home, as well as their activities using electrical appliances contributing to heating, but much more complicated to take the whole household into consideration. Our model provides a basis for better-targeted information actions to reduce energy use. Also, empirically based models capturing variations between households with different activity patterns are important for developing policies resulting in reduced energy use for space heating in multi-person households.

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author
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Activities, Consumer, Energy conservation, Energy use, Household, Individual, Indoor space heating, Information, Policy, Time diaries
in
Energies
volume
8
issue
8
pages
20 pages
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:84941711303
ISSN
1996-1073
DOI
10.3390/en8087618
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
021b0df2-d53f-44dc-803c-061e2077ff23
date added to LUP
2019-03-11 14:36:51
date last changed
2022-03-10 01:14:22
@article{021b0df2-d53f-44dc-803c-061e2077ff23,
  abstract     = {{<p>Policies to reduce household energy use usually target the individual customer. This is probably one explanation for the limited effect of many information policies, because two concepts with different meanings are confused: individual and household. In most contexts, an individual stands for what s/he does, but in the policy context, an individual is taken to represent the entire household. This is not problematic for a single-person household, but, in a multi-person household, activities performed by different household members influence the whole household's energy use. This paper illuminates problems arising from confusing the concepts of household and individual when developing policies to reduce household energy use. Examples relate to indoor space heating and energy-intensive home-based activities. The results indicate that it is analytically simple to consider individuals at home, as well as their activities using electrical appliances contributing to heating, but much more complicated to take the whole household into consideration. Our model provides a basis for better-targeted information actions to reduce energy use. Also, empirically based models capturing variations between households with different activity patterns are important for developing policies resulting in reduced energy use for space heating in multi-person households.</p>}},
  author       = {{Ellegård, Kajsa and Palm, Jenny}},
  issn         = {{1996-1073}},
  keywords     = {{Activities; Consumer; Energy conservation; Energy use; Household; Individual; Indoor space heating; Information; Policy; Time diaries}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  number       = {{8}},
  pages        = {{7618--7637}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Energies}},
  title        = {{Who is behaving? Consequences for energy policy of concept confusion}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en8087618}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/en8087618}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}