A review of residential energy feedback studies

Residential energy feedback is about providing personalized information on household energy use to consumers to encourage energy savings. This paper conducts a review of field-based studies that have evaluated the impact of energy feedback on residential energy consumption. The review includes studies in real occupied homes that have deployed feedback intervention(s) and measured energy savings. Our study builds a taxonomy for energy feedback based on different characteristics of feedback such as frequency, type, presentation style, and methods of access. Energy savings from similar feedback types were found to differ depending on how the study was conducted. The reviewed studies deployed a range of feedback information including energy units, energy cost and tailored information conducted across diverse audiences (ethnicity, geographical positioning), varying experimental types (longitudinal, Randomized Control Trial) and, size and duration of the studies.The duration of studies varied widely, ranging from one month to three years and demonstrated energy savings between 5% and 20%. While most studies achieved energy savings due to energy feedback, a few of them reported an increase in energy consumption which could be due to rebound effect. Most of the studies in literature adopted a longitudinal design where the current household energy consumption was compared with the past consumption to arrive at the savings . Others used Randomized Control Trial (RCT) design where energy consumption of intervention group was compared with control group. Most of the studies were conducted in developed countries with cold climates.. There are fewer studies done on large-scale residential energy feedback especially in emerging economies where there is a rise in air conditioning use . We propose future studies to also consider the human behavior and cultural influences while evaluating impact of energy feedback. Our recom-mendation is that the academic and policy community address this gap since energy feedback is likely to stimulate positive behavior change amongst householders leading to energy savings.