Real-time Conservation and the Psychology of Decision Making: Aresty Researchers Believe Immediate Feedback Will Help Homeowners Save Energy

Most of us only find out how much energy we use when we get a bill from our utility company at the end of the month. We don’t give it much thought when we turn on the washing machine or pop a frozen dinner into the microwave.

So how does turning off the lights when we leave a room, remembering to raise the temperature on the air conditioner when we aren’t home, and really learning how to conserve energy become second nature? A team of researchers, including Rutgers sophomore and Aresty Research Center student Zachary Smith, a psychology major in the School of Arts and Sciences, think that they have answer.

“Our prediction is that if homeowners were provided with real-time feedback instead of just a bill at the end of the month, it would have a positive effect, curtail usage and promote conservation,” says Gretchen Chapman, professor in the Department of Psychology and principal investigator in the 18-month study. “We don’t think it will be a panacea but we do think that there is a greater likelihood that consumption will be reduced by having that information made available.”

Smith teamed up with Chapman and utility giant Public Service Electric and Gas to find out whether real-time feedback influences behaviors. “I knew Zach would be great for this study because he is interested in science education and getting people used to looking at numbers,” Chapman said. “He has been a great asset in providing important information to homeowners in the study and in getting the process underway.”

The study was funded through a $438,622 PSE&G grant. The New Jersey-based electric company first sent invitations to 58,557 New Brunswick area customers.  Those who wanted to become involved in the project filled out a survey providing information on their household and electricity usage and agreed to have their billing records shared with researchers. Out of 937 that responded, 654 were eligible to participate.

Half of those participating then had an electricity feedback device known as The Energy Detective (TED) connected to their circuit breaker panel, which measures their household’s energy usage and displays the information on a computer, LCD screen or another device that connects them to the internet. The remaining control group did not have the device installed and can only determine how much energy they are using when they get their bill.

Chapman has spent years researching how people use basic psychological principals to make decisions, focusing mainly on health and medical care and believes the decision making process in this study is closely related.

Smith, meanwhile, became interested in the project, in part, as a result of his family’s involvement with CBS News a couple of years ago when they agreed to go on an “energy diet” for a month to see if they could conserve energy, cut costs and  reduce their carbon footprint.

“We changed our light bulbs, took shorter showers, turned off the lights, added insulation and made other changes and saved about $100 that month,” says Smith. “They figured that if we kept it up we could save about $1,200 in energy costs for the year.”

As part of the PSE&G/Rutgers project, Smith has helped Chapman manage the project and developed a 15-minute computer-based tutorial program so those in the experimental group would have a better understanding of the graphs and charts they are viewing. The information Smith provides to users enables those in the study to better understand what they are looking at, how many kilowatt hours they are using at any given time and how much it is costing.

“We thought it was important that they knew exactly what they were looking at when they got this information,” says Smith. “If they know what they are looking at we think they will check it more often.”

Chapman, Smith and their team will review the data collected from those in homes with the (TED) energy monitoring device, analyze the information and compare it to the monthly billing and kilowatt hour statements sent to those in the control group who have no real-time monitoring.

When the study is completed, the team will spend an additional year reviewing monthly bills to see if homeowners in the study are conserving or if their residential usage stays the same or increases.

 “We predict that the TED will help people conserve but we don’t know whether this will happen in all households,” says Chapman. “Maybe in a large household with lots of kids it won’t make any difference but in a house with all adults there might be a savings. We will just have to wait and see.”

– Robin Lally