Household energy conservation attitudes and behaviors in the Northwest: Tracking changes between 1983 and 1985

Abstract

Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has analyzed the changes in consumer energy conservation attitudes and behaviors in the Pacific Northwest between 1983 and 1985. The information was collected through stratified random telephone surveys on 2000 and 1058 households, respectively, for 1983 and 1985 in the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) service area in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Western Montana. This report covers four topic areas and tests two hypotheses. The topics are as follows: consumer perceptions and attitudes of energy use and conservation in the home; consumer perceptions of energy institutions and other entities; past and intended conservation actions and investments; and segmentation of homeowners into market prospect groups. The hypotheses tested are as follows: (1) There has been no change in the size and psychographic make-up of the original three market segments found in the 1983 survey analysis; and (2) image profiles of institutions with respect to familiarity, overall impression, and believability as sources of energy conservation information remain unchanged since 1983.