Household Energy Use and Travel: Opportunities for Behavioral Change

1. Household Energy Use and Travel:Opportunities for Behavioral Change Sashank Musti, Katherine Kortum and Dr. Kara Kockelman The University of Texas at Austin

2. Questionnaire Design • Cover letter (English and Spanish) • Five sections • Travel Choices • Vehicle Ownership • Home Design and Energy Use • Energy Policy Opinions • Demographics

3. Far West Manor Westlake Hyde Park East Austin Sunset Valley Survey Distribution

4. Survey Distribution(2) • Central Market Grocery • Flyers and URL cards • Community organizations • Web links via CapMetro and City sites • Internet version of the survey: www.energysurvey.co.nr

5. Data Weighting • Sample was compared to PUMS • Six control attributes: 720 categories • Gender (male, female) • Student status (student, non-student) • Worker status (worker, non-worker) • Age (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+) • Household Size (1, 2, 3, 4, 5+) • Income (<$30k, $30k-$75k, >$75k) • Categories with few observations combined

6. Sample vs. Austin • Workers are under-represented (nearly 2 to 1). • Students are very over-represented.

7. What Should We Do?

8. Yearly VMT per Person (WLS)

9. Yearly Fuel Use per Person (WLS)

10. Yearly VMT and Fuel Use • Both increase as… • Distance to CBD increases • Age increases • Both decrease as… • Education level rises • Number of children increases • Number of transit stops increases

11. Home Size and Monthly kWh (WLS)

12. Home Size and Monthly kWh (WLS) • Both increase as… • Income increases • Household size increases • Both decrease as… • The area grows denser • Older homes tend to be smaller but use more electricity. • College graduates tend to have smaller home sizes.

13. Comparison to EIA’s RECS Data

14. Opinions on Climate Change(Binary Probit)

15. Opinions on Climate Change(Binary Probit) • Regulations preferred by… • Women • Homeowners • Adaptation preferred by… • Workers • Households with many vehicles • Those with older homes acknowledge the importance of both regulations and adaptation.

16. Energy Reduction Strategies(Bivariate Ordered Probit)

17. Energy Reduction Strategies • CAPPING is preferred by… • Households with many vehicles • Older respondents • Workers • TAXATION is preferred by… • College graduates • Large households • Homeowners

18. Conclusions • Long-term behavioral changesare difficult to implement. • Most agree climate change is a concern, but are unwilling to change their own behavior. • Increasing income and education lead to greater (stated) concern about one’s impact on the environment.

19. Conclusions (2) • Electricity usageincreases by 77 kWh/month for an additional person in a household & by 49 kWh/month for an additional 100 square feet of living space. • Average electricity consumptioncan be reduced by moving into newer, smaller homes. • Fuel consumptionincreases by 16.6 gallon/person with a one mile increase in driving distance to the CBD. • VMT per personper year increases by 307 miles with every additional mile a household lives from the CBD.

20. Thank Youfor your attention. Questions and Suggestions?