What Works in Changing Energy-Using Behaviours in the Home?

The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is interested in understanding which interventions designed to change energy use behaviour in the home are most successful. They commissioned RAND Europe to conduct a review to understand the effectiveness of these programmes. This report draws on 48 behaviour change programmes identified and selected through a systematic search and selection process. These programmes involve a wide range of innovative approaches (such as the provision of Home Energy Reports that compare households' consumption with their neighbours') as well as more traditional approaches (including advertising campaigns). A number of dimensions were assessed in each programme:

• The level of energy savings achieved through the interventions
• The behaviour change underlying the energy savings
• The responses by different group
• The persistence of the behaviour change
• The contextual factors that contributed to the outcomes of the interventions
• The evidence on the cost effectiveness of the different types of interventions.

This Rapid Evidence Assessment has formed a key part of the consumer insight analysis in DECC's November 2012 national Energy Efficiency Strategy, setting out the direction of their policy for the coming decades. The RAND Europe report has been published alongside the Strategy on DECC's website.