Assessment of energy efficiency improvement methods in the residential sector through the development of economic experiments

Abstract

Energy efficiency has become one of the basic pillars with which to tackle climate change in the European Union where households accounted for 27% of final energy consumption in the year 2016, the second largest sector after transport. This paper describes and draws conclusions from a series of economic experiments developed with the objective of analyzing the effectiveness of various methods for improving energy efficiency in the domestic sector. A distinction is made between informational methods, consisting in providing continuous information to the consumer about their energy performance, and economic methods which are based on an economic incentive calculated on the basis of the energy savings achieved with respect to a known reference. The experiments have been carried out both in the experimental economics laboratory and in the field (real dwellings) and have also made it possible to evaluate the applicability of experimental economics to this type of analysis, in which the economic behavior of the subjects is influenced by psychological and social aspects. Final results show that informational methods on their own are not sufficient to achieve and maintain substantial energy savings and should be accompanied by economic incentives.