FOI Seminar 7 January 2011

Lars Gårn Hansen (FOI):

 

The effect on electricity consumption of providing autopoweroff plugs to different types of households - A field experiment
(joint with Carsten Lynge Jensen, Troels Fjordbak, Erik Gudbjerg)

 

Friday 7 January 2011, 12.30-13.30 Building A, seminar room 1

Abstract:

Provision of cheap energy saving technology to households as a means to induce energy saving habits is being considered by power companies and public authorities in several European countries. Yet experimental evidence on the effects of such interventions is sparse. In this paper we present results from a field experiment where autopoweroff plugs were provided free of charge to randomly selected households. We use propensity score matching to find average treatment effects on metered electricity consumption for different types of households. We find substantial effects for single men and couples without children while we find no, or only a small, effect for single women and households with children. This suggests that households with both the time and the skills to implement the provided technology are better motivated to do so. We conclude that evidence based targeting of interventions aimed at inducing energy savings in households and specifically tailoring information to target groups can significantly increase the efficiency of such programs.

 

JEL classifications: C21, D12, Q41