Behavior & Human Dimensions Program
In 2009, ACEEE started a new program on Behavior and Human Dimensions of Energy Use, building on work we have done in this area since the 1980s. This work addresses several issues. First, energy use is not determined just by the equipment we purchase, but how we use it. ACEEE is researching ways users can change their behavior to save energy, and ways that states, utilities and municipalities can encourage these behaviors. Second, for decades, advocates have recognized that the level of energy efficiency investments being made is much lower than is technologically or economically possible. In order to understand and help close this gap, ACEEE is studying how people actually make decisions affecting energy use.
In both of these areas, our objective is to help develop energy efficiency programs that work at individual, group and community scales, since how we all behave depends on a combination of our own psychology, as well as group and community interactions.
ACEEE’s Behavior and Human Dimensions program is cross-cutting, and addresses energy use and decisions in the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors. We also use our work on behavior to help inform our policy work. For example, several years ago we conducted a series of in-store interviews, surveys, focus groups and shopping experiments to help the Federal Trade Commission design an improved Energy Guide appliance label.
Several on-going projects illustrate the work of ACEEE’s Behavior and Human Dimensions Program:
- Research on how providing residential customers feedback on their energy use relative to norms in their community can lead to energy savings of 2-10%.
- Identifying and documenting examples of energy efficiency programs that have successfully taken a behavioral approach.
- Analyzing consumer decision-making around car purchases.
- Collaborating with Stanford's Precourt Energy Efficiency Center and the California Institute for Energy and Environment to plan and host the annual Behavior, Energy and Climate Change (BECC) Conference. The 2011 BECC Conference will take place in Washington, D.C. from November 29 - December 2, 2011.
⇒ To learn more about the human dimensions and behavioral aspects of energy efficiency, click here.