Energy feedback cut home energy use a little, but results varied a lot.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   In all, 256,536 people took part in 42 studies in homes, typically about 119 per study. The studies measured real energy use, and the paper gives no ages or sex split.

2. 02

   What they did

   Households got feedback on their energy use, from bills, cards, monitors or computers. The other households got no feedback or only information. Feedback came monthly or less often, or constantly, and ran from under a month to over a year.

3. 03

   What happened

   Across 42 studies, feedback cut energy use a little, but results varied and some numbers don't match. Allowing for about 10 missing studies made it smaller but still positive, and how often feedback came made no clear difference. Feedback that compared use with a goal seemed to help more, but only 4 studies tested it.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Across 42 studies, feedback cut energy use, but results varied a lot.

   • Rule: Get feedback on your progresstested

   Pooled analysis of 42 studies with 256,536 people · vs households that got no feedback or only information · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished; the studies disagreed a lot; mixes trials with other kinds of study

2. Helped

   Across 4 studies, feedback that compared use with a goal worked better than feedback without one.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested
   • Rule: Get feedback on your progressused

   Pooled analysis of 4 studies · vs feedback that did not compare use with a goal · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ mixes trials with other kinds of study

Source