Huebner, Gesche M;
Hanmer, Clare;
Zapata-Webborn, Ellen;
Pullinger, Martin;
McKenna, Eoghan James;
Few, Jessica;
Elam, Simon;
(2023)
Self-reported energy use behaviour changed significantly during the cost-of-living crisis in winter 2022/23: insights from cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys in Great Britain.
Scientific Reports
, 13
, Article 21683. 10.1038/s41598-023-48181-7.
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Abstract
The winter of 2022/23 has seen large increases in energy prices and in the cost of living in many countries around the world, including Great Britain. Here, we report the results of two surveys, combining cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, in a sample of about 5400 British households. One survey was conducted early in 2023, the other when participants had signed up to an ongoing research study in the past five years. Thermostat settings were about 1°C lower during the cost-of-living crisis than before, and householders were more likely to turn the heating off when the home was unoccupied. The effort to save energy increased compared to pre-cost-of-living-crisis levels. Using the in-home display more in the cost-of-living crisis than before correlated with greater effort to save energy, supporting the notion that displaying energy data can be a useful tool for energy reductions. Finding it difficult to keep comfortably warm in the home and struggling with meeting heating costs were linked to lower wellbeing, strengthening evidence links between cold, damp, and hard-to-heat homes and negative mental health outcomes. About 40% of respondents lowered the flow temperature of the boiler which might imply that highly tailored information campaigns can be effective in changing behaviour.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Self-reported energy use behaviour changed significantly during the cost-of-living crisis in winter 2022/23: insights from cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys in Great Britain |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-023-48181-7 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48181-7 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10184011 |
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