| Popis: |
The SINFONIA project is one of the first attempts to combine technological and behavioral policy levers to fight energy poverty in social housing districts. Tenants of Bolzano social housing are provided with renovated dwellings. To enhance the management of the renovated capital stock, they are also supplied with an in-home display (IHD) that provides real-time feedback on energy consumption and indoor parameters. But how will tenants react to IHDs? Previous studies investigate which features and benefits of IHDs generate engagement, but they yield little useful information on their effectiveness in low socioeconomic-status settings. With this study, we examine the behavioral process underlying tenants’ usage of IHDs. In contrast to the existing literature, we consider how cognitive biases, specifically, locus of control and present bias, affect the degree of interaction with IHDs. Their consideration is particularly important in this setting: Scarcity affects the cognitive process in a way that may undermine the effectiveness of projects requiring active behavioral change (such as IHDs). To integrate the various elements and account for their relative importance, we develop a theoretical model of the decision to interact with in-home displays (IHDs). On the one hand, by interacting with IHDs, tenants reduce their energy bills and CO2 emissions, deriving economic and moral utility. On the other hand, interacting with the IHDs generates disutility, for instance, in terms of opportunity cost of time to put in place their feedback. The interaction will occur only if the expected benefits are higher than the expected costs. We argue that such cost-benefit evaluation is further affected by present bias and locus of control. First, a stronger present bias may lead to higher discounting of such benefits and make them loom weaker than the immediate effort required to use the IHD. Second, a more external locus of control may downgrade the perception of energy saving resulting from IHDs usage, thereby reducing the expected economic and environmental benefits associated with a specific level of interaction. Through a theoretical discussion, our work contributes to informing the design of policies aimed at tackling energy poverty. |
