Self-reporting on domestic energy use: perceptions, behaviour and influencers

This survey was conducted as part of Whole Systems Energy Modelling Consortium (WholeSEM) project (EP/K039326/1). The survey was addressed to domestic end users of energy across the UK. The rationale for focusing on households was that energy use by households in the UK accounts for about 1/3 of energy demand (DECC, 2013). Therefore, understanding household energy demand emerges as an imperative for climate change, noting at the same time that there are serious gaps in understanding the ways in which people use energy. Data is scarce and fragmented while concerns about the theoretical assumptions and methods used are often raised with regards to existing data. This large-scale survey was selected as a starting point. The survey was run using Ipsos MORI’s online panel of 300K+ respondents in the UK and the sample size was N=1,004 participants. The aim in the sampling process was to mirror the characteristics of the UK adult population, filtered by tenure type (while controlling for other demographic variables).