Current Understanding and Behavior towards Energy: Caricature or Reality?

• I use energy (at home, at work) but it’s invisible. I don’t consume it directly but only via things I want—like light, heat and refrigeration.

•  I rarely think about the energy I’m using, and most of my use is habitual and unconscious. The amount of energy I use is registered on a meter that’s out of sight, unintelligible, and read by someone else.

•  At home, I only get feedback about my energy use in the form of monthly bills that present complex data that are a month old, and are boring and impersonal.

•  At work, I get no feedback at all — which does not worry me because I do not pay the bill anyway.

•  When information is provided to me about how and why I should change my behavior, it is also boring and impersonal and often not even applicable to my situation. Even when I understand it, I rarely act.”