{"674703":{"#nid":"674703","#data":{"type":"news","title":"To Save Energy, Users Let Smart Thermostats Take the Lead","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPeople using energy-efficient smart thermostats are willing to sacrifice comfort and control to save relatively small amounts of energy that could add up if enough people sign on, a Georgia Tech economist reported in a recent study.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWith federal and state energy policies targeting aggressive decarbonization in the next 15 years, smart technologies have the potential to help achieve these goals at a reasonable cost, said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/econ.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/casey-wichman\u0022\u003ECasey J. Wichman\u003C\/a\u003E, associate professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/econ.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Economics\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn a forthcoming issue of \u003Cem\u003EAmerican Economic Journal: Applied Economics\u003C\/em\u003E, Wichman and colleagues report that automation within smart thermostats can lead to potentially large reductions in household electricity use and costs.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EUtilities look to time-of-use (TOU) pricing \u2014 where prices are higher during peak demand and lower during lags in demand \u2014 to save consumers money and relieve pressure on the grid.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFrom an economics perspective, there\u0027s this idea that if you set the price right, everything will work out,\u201d Wichman said. \u201cBut if consumers don\u0027t actually respond to those prices, that limits the effectiveness of the solution.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor the study, more than 2,100 Toronto-area residents using Ecobee smart thermostats agreed to share their usage data during the 2019 rollout of a suite of new thermostat features that included an automated component.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EParticipants opted to allow the thermostats to precool or preheat their homes at times of the day when electricity was less expensive, choosing on a sliding scale how aggressive they wanted the algorithm to be. Degree changes within the homes varied from around 1 to 5 degrees, saving participants up to 30 Canadian cents per day in the summer.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI have always liked applying economic concepts to simple decisions we make in our daily lives,\u201d Wichman said. \u201cThis allows me to answer new questions about how decisions matter for the environment, and how policies or technologies can be designed to generate social change. In this project, we\u2019re leveraging new data sources to try to capture the unaccounted-for costs of those policies.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EStudies on energy savings, he said, often miss the in-home comfort cost. These results showed that people seemed willing to trade relatively small monetary savings for a small increase in discomfort, although discomfort was most pronounced for residents who typically spend more time at home. For the most part, people were willing to sacrifice control over their heating and cooling decisions to an algorithm.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis finding surprised Wichman. \u201cWe thought we would see more people turn off the feature,\u201d he said. That didn\u0027t happen.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs time-varying electricity pricing rolls out across North America, utilities could provide incentives for customers to opt into energy-saving settings programmed into internet-connected home appliances, like water heaters, pool pumps, and electric vehicles.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers\u2019 results suggest that such programs could be designed in a way that customers will accept. This gives Wichman a sense of optimism for the future.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat is interesting here is that technology can complement economic incentives,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can have technology correct for humans\u2019 inability to remember to set their heating and cooling schedule in a way that\u0027s consistent with social goals.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAuthor: Deborah Halber\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPeople using energy-efficient smart thermostats are willing to sacrifice comfort and control to save relatively small amounts of energy that could add up if enough people sign on, a Georgia Tech economist reported in a recent study.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"People using energy-efficient smart thermostats are willing to sacrifice comfort and control to save relatively small amounts of energy that could add up if enough people sign on, a Georgia Tech economist reported in a recent study. "}],"uid":"36413","created_gmt":"2024-05-13 18:13:31","changed_gmt":"2024-05-13 18:16:02","author":"pdevarajan3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"673990":{"id":"673990","type":"image","title":"Thermostats","body":"\u003Cp\u003EIllustration of a smart thermostat within the image of a house\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1715623570","gmt_created":"2024-05-13 18:06:10","changed":"1715623897","gmt_changed":"2024-05-13 18:11:37","alt":"Smart thermostat at home Illustration","file":{"fid":"257452","name":"AdobeStock_747422501-thermostats.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/05\/13\/AdobeStock_747422501-thermostats.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/05\/13\/AdobeStock_747422501-thermostats.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1288051,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/05\/13\/AdobeStock_747422501-thermostats.jpeg?itok=lhs-Hb31"}}},"media_ids":["673990"],"groups":[{"id":"367481","name":"SEI Energy"}],"categories":[{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"186858","name":"go-sei"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:priya.devarajan@research.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EPriya Devarajan\u003C\/a\u003E | \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.research.gatech.edu\/energy\u0022\u003ESEI\u003C\/a\u003E Communications Program Manager\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWritten by: Deboarh Halber\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["priya.devarajan@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}