NOTE: You may need to manually cut and paste the above URL into your browser, for it to work properly.
This randomized control experiment investigated the efficacy of an Energy Educator home visit in advance of a Building Analyst (auditor) home visit for encouraging homeowner's energy efficiency investments and energy conservation behaviors. This unique project delivered energy-efficiency education via an Energy (-efficiency) Educator employed by Snug Planet, a private home performance contractorconducting the home audit, and utilized social marketing and other psychological tools (e.g., cultivating relationships, social norms and diffusion, commitment, and foot-in-the-door technique) intended to increase homeowners' investments in home energy retrofit energy-efficiency recommendations and low-costand no-costenergy conservation behaviors.
Our experiment compared customers who received the standard home audit (control condition) to those who received an Energy Educator visit in advance of the home audit (experimental condition).To assess homeowner energy conservation actions, our analysis examined: 1) customer conversion (i.e., whether a customer invested inthe proposed energy retrofit work on their home), 2) average job size(average dollars spent on recommended home energy retrofit work), 3) average dollars per lead (average dollars spent on recommended home energy retrofit work, includingthose customers who did not uptake the recommended work), and 4) the extent of customer's low-costand no-cost energy-saving behavior changes and habits in the home.
Our findings suggest that the Energy Educatorvisitdid not influence homeowners' investments in the home energy-efficiency retrofits recommended by the Building Analyst audit or change homeowners' entrenched daily habits such as turning off lights or unplugging small appliances when not in use. However, the Energy Educator visit did positively influence low-and no-cost, one-time energy conservation changes such as adjusting refrigerator/freezer temperatures, professionally cleaning dryer ducts, lowering hot water temperature, and cleaning refrigerator coils. |
