Longitudinal Experimental Research of the Effects of Different Information Frameworks on Household Energy Saving Behaviors in Urban Areas

Abstract

Abstract:

In order to explore how to encourage China’s urban households to save electricity through pre-use information and feedback, a 16-week randomized controlled trial is conducted in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. The energy-saving effects of the information promotion frameworks (social normative information & environmental education information) and information feedback frameworks (cost-benefit feedback & environmental contribution feedback) are separately compared in the context of single intervention and coupled intervention respectively. Data of electricity consumption of eight experimental groups and one control group are real-time collected through the measurement system of the power supply company. And the effects of electricity saving on eight information frames are analyzed longitudinally by repeated measurement covariance analysis. The results show that the intervention strategies using social normative information coupled with two kinds of feedback information can continuously and effectively stimulate Chinese urban families to actively save electricity. Under the same social normative information, coupled with the environment contribution feedback is better than cost-benefit feedback. The single environmental education information and the single cost-benefit feedback have no significant effect on household electricity saving. The other four information frameworks only have short-term electricity-saving effects.

Key words: disseminating information, feedback information, electricity saving, urban households, randomized controlled field experimental

Mi Lingyun, Ding Chaoqiong, Yu Xueyan, Cong Jinqiu, Qiao Lijie. Longitudinal Experimental Research of the Effects of Different Information Frameworks on Household Energy Saving Behaviors in Urban Areas[J]. , 2020, 32(5): 292-304.

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