Incentivized Energy Consumption Adaption in Private Households Facing the Energy Crisis

The ongoing energy crisis led to high energy prices and the call for energy savings in the winter months of 2022 to 2023. As the fulfilment of these demands is directly linked to the people’s well-being, this challenged many households in the colder months. To analyze the interaction and willingness to reduce one’s comfort level with regard to adjusting heating patterns and react to bottlenecks in the electricity supply, a field study was conducted with two tenants living in the living lab Energy Smart Home Lab (ESHL) for a time period of eight weeks. The ESHL combines a smart home with a sophisticated sensor and measurement system. During the experiment, the tenants received calls to action linked to noneconomic and economic incentives to adapt their heating and electricity demand. Their reactions were analysed based on a mixed methods approach utilizing the recorded energy consumption data, temperature set points for the heating system, surveys and interviews. The results indicate a typically high motivation to meet the incentivized adaption in heating and electricity consumption, regarding both economic and non-economic incentives. ... mehrEspecially the reduction of the heating demand does not seem to have challenged the tenants too much. They stated not to have lost comfort despite lowering temperature set points significantly. Not all the calls to action, though, were carried out. Notwithstanding the incentive, the main reasons to ignore the electricity calls to action were social gatherings or pre-planned daily schedules, while maintaining comfort levels served as primary justification for increasing heating.