Inducing energy and CO2 savings in private households by introducing CO2-budgets – findings from a living lab experiment

Climate change mitigation presents one of the most imminent challenges of our time. Despite pledges by various nations to become carbon neutral by 2050, the current efforts are not enough to reach the targeted Paris Agreement of keeping global warming well below 2 °C. Further emission mitigation measures are necessary to increase the effort to reach these goals. Against this background, household carbon budgets are a policy measure that could be reintroduced for discussion. With this approach, carbon reduction targets can be linked with personal action in private households, by providing each household with an equal carbon budget. Similar to the approach already implemented e.g. for the industry sector with the EU emissions trading system (ETS), the carbon budget can be traded. Studies discussing carbon budgets have been contemplating the concept in theory, however very few studies have conducted field studies and pilot projects so far. We contribute to this research gap by conducting a two months experiment in the living lab Energy Smart Home Lab (ESHL), monitoring a household of two tenants. As a smart home, the ESHL provides a sophisticated sensor and measuring system, enabling the observation of space heating, warm water and electricity consumption. ... mehrFrom this data the CO2 emissions of the household can be calculated in real time. The carbon budget represents the CO2 amount that the household is allowed to emit on a weekly basis. A transgression of the budget is punished by e.g. a monetary fee. Hereby, economic, as well as environmentally and socially motivated incentives are tested. The carbon budget and all further information is presented in real-time to the tenants via an energy management dashboard that visualizes the heat and electricity consumption within the allowed carbon budget. During the experiment, the tenants answer surveys and participate in interviews on a regular basis, to assess the motivations, the adaptability, as well as the adjustment measures taken regarding the handling of the carbon budget and trading options. We present the findings from this experiment, as well as review the perceived barriers from literature in the context of the conducted experiment and discuss implications and further research options.