A study in California showed that when the monthly electric bill listed the average consumption in the neighborhood, the people in above-average households significantly decreased their consumption.
Meanwhile, the people with the below-average bills reacted by significantly increasing their consumption — not exactly the goal of the project.
That reaction was avoided when the bill featured a little drawing along with the numbers: a smiling face on a below-average bill or a frowning face on an above-average bill. After that simple nudge, the heavy users made even bigger cuts in consumption, while the light users remained frugal.
What we need is a way to deliver the message to people when they are consuming more than their fair share, as well as a way to give people a pat on the back when they are doing something good for the Earth.
Take our house. Although I know how much electricity we use at our house, and I have a vague idea of what the average is for the entire city, I have no idea how that compares to other households in our demographic, and I also don't know whether we are doing a good or bad job with our energy usage. I feel that we've done a lot to reduce our energy consumption, but it has been mostly low-hanging fruit. I'm always looking for ways to do more, but there are limits to the level of inconvenience I am willing to live with. I might be more encouraged if the system had more feedback built in.
