Tools of Change Webinar: Shower feedback in Switzerland

Transcription

1 Tools of Change Webinar: Shower feedback in Switzerland Verena Tiefenbeck ETH Zurich (Switzerland) & University of Bonn (Germany) March 06, 2017 p. 1 A little quiz for the audience 1 second of showering uses as much energy as a Macbook Air (laptop) uses in A) 3.7 seconds B) 42 seconds C) 12.6 minutes D) 1.5 hours p. 2 1

2 Key takeaway: The focus on a specific behavior can substantially increase the impact of feedback on energy use. What did we do? Real-time feedback on a specific behavior Feedback on energy and water use in the shower 697 households What did we find out? 22% reduction in energy use for target behavior Average reduction: 452 kwh/yr Energy savings > residential lighting (!) p. 3 Content 1. Introduction 2. Approach 3. Results 4. Impact & discussion p. 4 2

3 Content 1. Introduction 2. Approach 3. Results 4. Impact & discussion p. 5 The Bits to Energy Lab is a joint research initiative of ETH Zurich, the University and Bamberg, and the University of St. Gallen. Mission: We combine information technology and social science insights to help households to reduce their energy consumption. p. 6 3

4 The project was funded by the local utility ewz and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. ETH Zurich (Switzerland) University of Bamberg (Germany) University of Bonn (Germany) University of Lausanne (Switzerland) p. 7 Showering accounts for a large and increasing fraction of energy consumption in homes. Cooking 4% Computers Refrigeration 2% 4% Electronics 5% Lighting 6% Other 4% Space heating 45% Space cooling 9% Source: DoE Buildings Energy Data Book 2011 Water heating 18% Showering: 80% of hot water (Bertrand et al. 2017) p. 8 4

5 How to foster resource conservation? Established policy instruments often meet limited success. Technical upgrades e.g. low-flow showerheads Information campaigns Fairly ineffective (Abrahamse et al. 2005) Price increases Politically difficult to implement Small price elasticity (Azevedo et al. 2011) Feedback on aggregated consumption Small reductions ~ 2% (McKerracher & Torriti 2013, Buchanan et al. 2015) p. 9 Content 1. Introduction 2. Approach 3. Results 4. Impact & discussion p. 10 5

6 We use a different approach: We focus on a specific behavior and provide feedback in real time. Target a specific behavior Provide concrete and actionable information e.g., in the shower Provide real-time feedback While the individual engages in the behavior p. 11 We use Amphiro smart shower meters to capture granular data on consumer responses to different behavioral interventions. Standard device displays and stores Temperature (⁰ C/⁰F) Water volume (l/gal) Energy consumption (kwh) Energy efficiency class (A G) Polar bear animation per shower No battery energy from the water flow p. 12 6

7 Survey Survey For the purpose of our study, we recruited customers of Zurich s utility company ewz. 697 participating households Opt-in, max. 700 households Thank-you gift for electricity smart metering study (N=5,919) 1- and 2-person households Pre-study survey (N=1,354) Can compare with electr. smart metering study Participants: slightly less (!) pro-environmental attitudes than the average Swiss population p. 13 We ran a two-month randomized controlled field trial to evaluate the impact of the intervention. 465 households: real-time consumption feedback in the shower No feedback: Temperature only Baseline phase Feedback Temperature only Intervention phase Treatment Control group 232 households: only temperature p. 14 7

8 The data was extracted via optical readout. New devices can transfer the data via Bluetooth. Data extraction in the Zurich study (amphiro a1): Data extraction now: (amphiro b1 connect has Bluetooth connectivity) p. 15 Content 1. Introduction 2. Approach 3. Results 4. Impact & discussion p. 16 8

9 The control group used 2.56 kwh of energy per shower on average during the baseline phase. No real-time feedback (control) Real-time feedback (treatment) p. 17 Control group households slightly increased their energy use in the course of the study. No real-time feedback (control) Real-time feedback (treatment) p. 18 9

10 During the baseline phase, both groups used roughly the same amount of energy per shower. No real-time feedback (control) Real-time feedback (treatment) p. 19 With the activation of the feedback, the treatment group reduced their energy use by 22% relative to the control group. No real-time feedback (control) Real-time feedback (treatment) ( same story for water use, as E=m* T*c p *η and hardly anyone takes colder showers) p

11 How did the participants conserve energy (margins of adjustment)? Vast majority of savings: reduction of shower time Only small adjustments of temperature & flow rate p. 21 Content 1. Introduction 2. Approach 3. Results 4. Impact & discussion p

12 The impact of the intervention is much larger than the savings achieved in the electricity smart metering study (same pool of households). Reduction Energy relative consumption change Electricity smart meter program 1 3.2% of household electricity Smart shower meter 22% of shower energy Energy absolute change (per year) 86 kwh Factor kwh CO2 reduction / year 9 kg Factor kg Water savings / year / 7300 liters (1930 gal) Cost savings per year CHF 17 (~17 USD) CHF 110 (~109 USD) 1 ewz-study smart metering 2012, same pool of households p. 23 The effects are large, immediate and appear to be stable over time. Large 22% reduction in the energy consumption of the target behavior Immediate effect Stable over the two-month study Average savings (452 kwh) exceed energy use for lighting in Swiss / EU homes Savings are driven by participants with a high baseline consumption p

13 The program yielded a large impact per household. Households in the city of Zurich: Average energy use: 9,000 kwh/yr (CH: 18,580 kwh/yr, USA: 24,000 kwh/yr) 452 kwh reduction 5% of participants household energy use Average US shower: 65 liters (CH: 44 liters) p. 25 We have run a series of follow-up studies with partners in different countries. p

14 Estimated overall impact of the Amphiro smart shower meters Commercially available (amphiro.com / amazon) 40,000 devices sold to date Energy savings: 40k*452 kwh/yr = 18 GWh/yr Water savings: 292 M liters/yr (77.7 M gallons) p. 27 Key for scalability: Is the intervention costeffective? Household perspective (2.1-person household) Pays off in 9 months 3 year-lifetime > net benefit of CHF 190 Utility / policy maker perspective (carbon abatement) 2.9 ct/kwh abated Negative carbon abatement costs of USD 234 (Allcott and Mullainathan 2010) No-brainer from financial point of view p

15 More details on the study are available in our recent article Tiefenbeck, V., Goette, L., Degen, K., Tasic, V., Fleisch, E., Lalive, R., Staake, T. (2017), Overcoming salience bias: How realtime feedback fosters resource conservation. Management Science, epub ahead of print Nov. 28, 2016, doi: /mnsc This article was downloaded by: [ ] On: 28 November 2016, At: 10:45 Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) INFORMS is located in Maryland, USA Management Science Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: Overcoming Salience Bias: How Real-Time Feedback Fosters Resource Conservation Verena Tiefenbeck, Lorenz Goette, Kathrin Degen, Vojkan Tasic, Elgar Fleisch, Rafael Lalive, Thorsten Staake To cite this article: Verena Tiefenbeck, Lorenz Goette, Kathrin Degen, Vojkan Tasic, Elgar Fleisch, Rafael Lalive, Thorsten Staake (2016) Overcoming Salience Bias: How Real-Time Feedback Fosters Resource Conservation. Management Science Published online in Articles in Advance 28 Nov Full terms and conditions of use: This article may be used only for the purposes of research, teaching, and/or private study. Commercial use or systematic downloading (by robots or other automatic processes) is prohibited without explicit Publisher approval, unless otherwise noted. For more information, contact The Publisher does not warrant or guarantee the article s accuracy, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Descriptions of, or references to, products or publications, or inclusion of an advertisement in this article, neither constitutes nor implies a guarantee, endorsement, or support of claims made of that product, publication, or service. Copyright 2016, INFORMS Please scroll down for article it is on subsequent pages INFORMS is the largest professional society in the world for professionals in the fields of operations research, management science, and analytics. For more information on INFORMS, its publications, membership, or meetings visit p. 29 Thanks for listening! Looking forward to your questions. Verena Tiefenbeck ETH Zurich, Switzerland vtiefenbeck@ethz.ch p