Household Demand Responsiveness to Peak Use Pricing: Implications Drawn from Experimental Studies of Consumer Demand Behavior of Both Humans and Animals

The authors approach the problem of demand responsiveness to peak use pricing from the perspective of experimental economists working in the area of consumer demand behavior. Results from experiments involving both human and laboratory animal consumers are presented suggesting that wide classes of house-_ hold economic activities will be quite responsive to changes in peak use pricing but that the demand for space heating and cooling will be highly inelastic without major changes in capital stocks. The reasons for these differences are discussed along with suggestions of low cost technologies for achieving greater price responsiveness in space heating and cooling demands