Social Norms And Policies To Promote Energy Efficiency In The Home

摘要

Conventional policy approaches to residential energy efficiency rely on an overly simplistic model of individual decisionmaking that assumes homeowners are instrumental (interested in outcomes), financially optimizing, and motivated by environmental values. This substantiates information, incentive, and product standard policies that promote energy-efficient technology adoption to homeowners already largely committed to energy-related renovations. In contrast, a behaviorally realistic assessment of renovation decisions (rather than energy-efficient decisions) shows that (1) homeowners associate energy cost savings with values not financial returns; (2) amenity renovations are more common than energy-related renovations; (3) amenity renovations are more strongly influenced by social norms, as well as aesthetic (visible) and emotional factors; and (4) all renovators remain open to including low-cost energy-efficient measures in their renovation plans. This decision model can be used to design policies that target a far larger market niche (all renovating homeowners), increase the incremental effect of financial incentives, harness social norms on renovating (in a reinforcing cycle), and appeal to actual rather than supposed motivations.