Energy Review

This synthesis aims at investigating the current state of research regarding digital behavior change interventions aiming to affect households' direct energy use in a more sustainable direction. The area is very relevant since digital behavior change interventions have grown very rapidly in recent years, but there has not yet been a systematic review of this kind in the energy field.

The results will be useful for decision makers, interaction and intervention designers as well as for practitioners in companies, energy companies, housing companies, government agencies and other public actors, with an interest in affecting energy consumers in a more sustainable direction.

We will investigate interventions directed against individuals and households, which may target 1) reduced energy consumption through changed habits, 2) reduced energy consumption through one-off activities/investments, 3) private energy production and 4) choice of energy consumption time (in relation to “smart grids”). We will investigate the energy and sustainability goals that the relevant studies have aimed at, what behavior change techniques that have been used, what digital platform has been used, and the extent to which it has achieved set goals. Furthermore, our goal is to identify areas where there is a knowledge gap, and based on the synthesis recommend what measures can be taken to turn households to more sustainable energy use.

This project has funding from Formas and will be carried out from 2019-01-01 - 2019-12-31