IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i3p1021-1031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Potential for reducing electricity demand for lighting in households: An exploratory socio-technical study

Author

Listed:
  • Wall, Rob
  • Crosbie, Tracey

Abstract

Illuminance data were collected from 18 UK dwellings during 1-week periods in spring 2007, to establish when luminaires were used and to calculate electricity consumption for lighting. Householders were also interviewed about lighting use and choices. The potential for reducing lighting electricity consumption by replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) is assessed. Mean weekly electricity consumption for lighting was 3.756Â kWÂ h and mean proportion of total electricity consumption used for lighting was 6.55%. It is notable, however, that participants generally expressed high levels of environmental awareness and that electricity consumption figures for less environmentally-aware households may differ. On average, households could have reduced lighting electricity consumption by 50.9% if all incandescent bulbs were replaced with CFLs. Even householders making extensive use of efficient lighting technologies expressed concerns about these technologies' performance, but seemed willing to tolerate perceived shortcomings for environmental reasons. However, the study raises questions about whether people without strong environmental motivations can be convinced that efficient lighting technologies will meet their needs. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of policies phasing out general lighting service incandescent bulbs, as there is a risk that householders may switch to tungsten halogen bulbs rather than low-energy options.

Suggested Citation

  • Wall, Rob & Crosbie, Tracey, 2009. "Potential for reducing electricity demand for lighting in households: An exploratory socio-technical study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1021-1031, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:3:p:1021-1031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(08)00594-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wilhite, Harold & Nakagami, Hidetoshi & Masuda, Takashi & Yamaga, Yukiko & Haneda, Hiroshi, 1996. "A cross-cultural analysis of household energy use behaviour in Japan and Norway," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(9), pages 795-803, September.
    2. Ueno, Tsuyoshi & Sano, Fuminori & Saeki, Osamu & Tsuji, Kiichiro, 2006. "Effectiveness of an energy-consumption information system on energy savings in residential houses based on monitored data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 166-183, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tracey Crosbie, 2006. "Household Energy Studies: The Gap between Theory and Method," Energy & Environment, , vol. 17(5), pages 735-753, September.
    2. Lillemo, Shuling Chen, 2014. "Measuring the effect of procrastination and environmental awareness on households' energy-saving behaviours: An empirical approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 249-256.
    3. Vega, A.M. & Santamaria, F. & Rivas, E., 2015. "Modeling for home electric energy management: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 948-959.
    4. Jensen, Jesper Ole, 2008. "Measuring consumption in households: Interpretations and strategies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 353-361, December.
    5. Attour, Amel & Baudino, Marco & Krafft, Jackie & Lazaric, Nathalie, 2020. "Determinants of energy tracking application use at the city level: Evidence from France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    6. Penelope Buckley, 2020. "Prices, information and nudges for residential electricity conservation : A meta-analysis," Post-Print hal-02500507, HAL.
    7. Oropeza-Perez, Ivan & Østergaard, Poul Alberg, 2014. "Potential of natural ventilation in temperate countries – A case study of Denmark," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 520-530.
    8. Büchs, Milena & Bahaj, AbuBakr S. & Blunden, Luke & Bourikas, Leonidas & Falkingham, Jane & James, Patrick & Kamanda, Mamusu & Wu, Yue, 2018. "Promoting low carbon behaviours through personalised information? Long-term evaluation of a carbon calculator interview," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 284-293.
    9. Filippini, Massimo & Wekhof, Tobias, 2021. "The effect of culture on energy efficient vehicle ownership," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    10. Pothitou, Mary & Hanna, Richard F. & Chalvatzis, Konstantinos J., 2016. "Environmental knowledge, pro-environmental behaviour and energy savings in households: An empirical study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1217-1229.
    11. Das, Aparna & Paul, Saikat Kumar, 2015. "Artificial illumination during daytime in residential buildings: Factors, energy implications and future predictions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 65-85.
    12. Sarran, Lucile & Gunay, H. Burak & O'Brien, William & Hviid, Christian A. & Rode, Carsten, 2021. "A data-driven study of thermostat overrides during demand response events," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    13. Antonio Paone & Jean-Philippe Bacher, 2018. "The Impact of Building Occupant Behavior on Energy Efficiency and Methods to Influence It: A Review of the State of the Art," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, April.
    14. Kendel, Adnane & Lazaric, Nathalie & Maréchal, Kevin, 2017. "What do people ‘learn by looking’ at direct feedback on their energy consumption? Results of a field study in Southern France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 593-605.
    15. Buchanan, Kathryn & Russo, Riccardo & Anderson, Ben, 2015. "The question of energy reduction: The problem(s) with feedback," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 89-96.
    16. Shuxin Mao & Sha Qiu & Tao Li & Mingfang Tang & Hongbing Deng & Hua Zheng, 2020. "Using Characteristic Energy to Study Rural Ethnic Minorities’ Household Energy Consumption and Its Impact Factors in Chongqing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-14, August.
    17. Qadeer Ali & Muhammad Jamaluddin Thaheem & Fahim Ullah & Samad M. E. Sepasgozar, 2020. "The Performance Gap in Energy-Efficient Office Buildings: How the Occupants Can Help?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-27, March.
    18. Manfred Lenzen & Murukesan Krishnapillai & Deveraux Talagi & Jodie Quintal & Denise Quintal & Ron Grant & Simpson Abraham & Cindy Ehmes & Joy Murray, 2014. "Cultural and socio‐economic determinants of energy consumption on small remote islands," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(1), pages 27-46, February.
    19. Peeraya Inyim & Mostafa Batouli & Maria Presa Reyes & Triana Carmenate & Leonardo Bobadilla & Ali Mostafavi, 2018. "A Smartphone Application for Personalized and Multi-Method Interventions toward Energy Saving in Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, May.
    20. Sardianou, Eleni, 2007. "Estimating energy conservation patterns of Greek households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3778-3791, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lighting Household Electricity;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:3:p:1021-1031. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.