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ABSTRACT
For an effective consumer energy policy, it is important to know why some households require more energy than others. The aim of
the study described here was to examine whether there is a relationship between the total household energy requirement, on one hand,
and value patterns, the motivation to save energy or the problem perception of climate change, on the other. To examine these
relationships, we held a consumer survey among 2304 respondent households.
We did not find significant differences in the energy requirement of groups of households with different value patterns, taking into
account the differences in the socio-economic situation of households. Only for the ‘motivation to save energy’ we did find that the least
motivated group requires 10 GJ more energy than the average and most motivated groups; this is about 4% of the total household energy
requirement.
This means that a self-regulating energy policy, solely based on the fact that a strategy of internalising environmental responsibility will
not be effective in saving energy. There are indications that a social dilemma is one of the reasons why people’s consumption patterns do
not conform to their value patterns, problem perception or motivation to save energy.
This article (203 kB) is a slightly adapted version of: Chapter 5 (355 kB) in my PhD thesis
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