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To provide decision makers with useful estimates of energy saving potentials, it is important to develop optimal intervention programs and relate actual savings (amount of energy) to a theoretical maximum reduction potential. Against this background, an interdisciplinary project that integrated technical and psychological expertise was designed. We identified the theoretical potential for energy reduction based on the typical behavior of staff occupying public university buildings in Germany. We developed an intervention program using psychological intervention research and norm activation theory and collected three types of data: energy consumption, selfreported behaviors, and observation of one of the target behaviors. Data from staff members in 15 buildings at four German universities were collected in winter 2008/2009 (N =2,041) using a quasi-experimental pre-/postdesign with control group. Based on trend calculations intervention buildings showed reductions in energy consumption of 8% (electricity) and 1% (heating), which represents 43% (electricity) and 10% (heating) of the calculated theoretical maximum saving potential. Although a variation between buildings was considerable, self-report data and observations (correct window ventilation) support that changes in staff behavior did result in energy savings. Implications of the approach and future research in the domain of energy user behavior are discussed.

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Investment determinants on residential photovoltaic (PV) in Germany were measured via questionnaire. The survey covered social influences in terms of injunctive and descriptive norms, and economic, ecological and autarkic motives for the investment. Descriptive norms were more relevant for the investment decisions than injunctive norms, but both were considerably less important than all of the other three investment motives. Additionally, we observed the actual distribution of PV systems in the participants’ living area; we gathered the observation data on PV distribution from governmental databases. We found survey data on descriptive and objective norms and observation data to be unrelated. These findings indicate that multiple approaches are necessary to assess the relevance of social influences reliably.