The North East Scotland Energy Monitoring Project: Do Gadgets Help Households to Save Energy?

The North East Scotland Energy Monitoring Project (NESEMP) is an ongoing three year study of energy use in 400 households, most of who work for a large local authority in North East Scotland. This project recruited participants from Aberdeenshire County Council, and the geographical spread of the sample was found to well represent the geographical spread of the population in the study area. Participants in this study were each provided with an internet-connected energy usage monitor ? a technology which provides households with real-time electricity consumption feedback as well as the ability to see time-series data when connected to the internet. The energy data streams from the sample have been used to draw a picture of household energy consumption. Participants were asked to fill in CO2-calculator questionnaires in the first phase of the study. Returned questionnaires were subsequently analysed using a standardised method to derive CO2 estimates. Participants were also asked about the frequency with which they undertook various pro-environmental behaviours, their beliefs about climate change, their beliefs about the efficacy of particular measures to mitigate climate change, measures of personal coping with climate change, attitudes to energy generation, life satisfaction and community connectedness. Household CO2 footprint estimates were fed back to all households in the second phase of the study, and an experimental condition was introduced for 50% of the sample. This experimental condition will allow the study to determine any additional effect of individual-appliance feedback over and above whole-house feedback. The study design including details of the experimental condition will be presented. Methodological challenges associated with the scale of data collection (400 houses each providing readings every 5-minutes for 3 years) will be discussed. Furthermore, household energy consumption will be discussed in relation to questionnaire-based measures, including CO2 footprint estimates