{"id":1089,"date":"2011-05-23T20:41:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T20:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2011-05-23T20:41:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T20:41:01","slug":"the-bottom-line-information-is-powerful-can-be-used-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/05\/23\/the-bottom-line-information-is-powerful-can-be-used-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bottom Line: Information Is Powerful &amp; Can Be Used For Good"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2011\/05\/opower23.jpg\"><\/a>By: Matt Davis, EDF Research Fellow and Author of EDF Behavior and Energy Savings Study<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2011\/05\/opower22.jpg\"><\/a>I\u2019m excited to <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.edf.org\/pressrelease.cfm?contentID=11770\">announce<\/a> the results of a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2011\/05\/BehaviorAndEnergySavings.pdf\">new EDF study<\/a> that analyzes the potential to reduce energy use and our environmental impact using one of the cheapest inputs in the world: information.\u00a0 At EDF, we\u2019ve always believed that the right set of consumer-facing energy efficiency tools and technology could allow families to take charge of their energy usage, cut down on their monthly bills, and shrink their carbon footprint \u2013 and now we have proof.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1101\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1101\" style=\"width: 193px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2011\/05\/opower24.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1101\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2011\/05\/opower24.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"174\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1101\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Opower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We collaborated with an innovative start-up called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opower.com\/\">Opower<\/a> to look at the potential for simple graphs and data to drive energy savings.\u00a0 We analyzed 22 million electricity bills, spread across 11 utilities, to see how households react to energy-savings tips and \u2013 most importantly, and originally \u2013 a graphic that shows them how their usage stacks up against their neighbors\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Our findings, in a nutshell: information pays.\u00a0 The 771,000 households who received Home Energy Reports (Reports) reduced their electricity usage by 1.8% on average.\u00a0 While we can only speculate about what would happen in other settings, that number jumped out at us, and for good reason.\u00a0 If every home in America reduced their electricity usage by that much, we would all see the following benefits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0$3 billion in savings on energy bills;<\/li>\n<li>26,000 gigawatt-hours of reduced electricity-demand \u2013 enough to power the homes of 5.6 million Americans; and<\/li>\n<li>8.9 million metric tons of reduced carbon emissions, which is equivalent to the annual emissions from three 500 MW coal-fired power plants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We also looked at how different types of households respond to the Reports and found some interesting results.\u00a0 For instance, in most of the utilities we looked at, the \u201cenergy hogs\u201d are the most likely to roll back their energy usage.\u00a0 If you were to use that fact to target reports at \u201chigh-potential\u201d households, you could boost the average reduction to 6.8% \u2013 more than three times the sample-wide average.<\/p>\n<p>Energy efficiency is widely considered one of the greatest untapped energy resources. \u00a0This study confirms that simple behavioral changes generate consistent savings across a wide range of utilities and demographics.\u00a0 The message is clear: customers empowered with information on energy usage are more likely to save energy and money, all while reducing their carbon footprint.<\/p>\n<p>We hope that simple, innovative tools like this one will spread far and wide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Matt Davis, EDF Research Fellow and Author of EDF Behavior and Energy Savings Study I\u2019m excited to announce the results of a new EDF study that analyzes the potential to reduce energy use and our environmental impact using one of the cheapest inputs in the world: information.\u00a0 At EDF, we\u2019ve always believed that the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-efficiency"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Bottom Line: Information Is Powerful &amp; 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