Consumer Feedback Systems: How much energy saving will they deliver and for how long?

In order to foster investments in energy efficiency and also a sustainable use energy it is important to offer to consumers an effective feedback on their energy consumption coupled with other information, e.g. historical consumption or comparison with similar households, etc. that may help consumers to change their behavior and/or invest in energy efficiency technologies. Feedback systems could be based on billing with the provision of information on the past consumption and/or on comparative information; energy consumption based on billing could also be posted on internet and social media. For consumers with smart meters real time energy consumption information could be provided on internet or through dedicated devices and displays, including mobile devices. There is also the possibility, through connected devices and appliances, even if not connected to a smart meter, to provide real time energy consumption information which may allow a prompt response from the final energy consumers and increase energy savings. The paper proposes a taxonomy of feedback systems for energy consumption with focus on the residential sector and include some innovative examples. Based on an exhaustive literature review of research on evaluation of different feedback systems, the paper proposes a meta-analysis in order to evaluate the energy savings of the different types of feedback systems, including the persistence of the savings. Finally the paper proposes some regulatory options to introduce cost-effective feedback systems for residential energy consumption.

BERTOLDI Paolo;  RIBEIRO SERRENHO Tiago;  ZANGHERI Paolo; 

2016-12-01

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

JRC101004

http://aceee.org/files/proceedings/2016/data/index.htm,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC101004,