An analysis of the household energy rebound effect from a practice perspective: spatial and temporal dimensions

Abstract

This article presents and discusses results from an empirical study of people's uses of various types of heat pumps in Norwegian homes. We analyze the rebound effect from a practice theory perspective. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 homes in 2012 and 2013, and in two cases, we observed the process and aftermath of the installations of heat pumps. We disentangle the motives behind people's acquisition of heat pumps and examine how heat pumps are taken in use, that is, the ways heat pumps form part of-and modify-the social practices into which they are integrated, whether related to heating, comfort, time management, or other routines and concerns. The results show that a comfort rebound effect (direct rebound) is at work in two specific senses. First, a "temporal rebound" occurs as people expand the amount of time the home is heated. Secondly, the heat pump enables a physical expansion of the heated space, which we refer to as the "spatial rebound". We show that three sources of agency contribute to these shifts: people's own practical knowledge, expert knowledge, and the heat pump's embedded script. Our findings indicate that the ways that heat pumps are viewed and used differ significantly between the suppliers who promote them and the households who buy and use them.

Revisiting household energy rebound: Perspectives from a multidisciplinary study

“…5 Our study builds on two coordinated studies; one economic and one anthropological. 10,6 As in Gram-Hanssen, the qualitative study is framed in a social practice theory perspective to generate insights on how heating practices have changed after heat pumps are installed, and on the reasons behind the observed changes in practices. 5 However, in our paper, the quantitative approach is based on statistical economic modelling (econometrics) of household behaviour, which enables us to identify and quantify different behavioural causes of the observed rebound effects.…”

Domestic energy consumption and climate change mitigation

“…A German evaluation study on the adoption of energy‐efficient lighting (Schleich, Mills, & Dutschke, ) found that households altered their behavior in response to the lower costs associated with lighting services of energy‐efficient light bulbs, by letting bulbs burn for longer periods of time, or by increasing the luminosity of bulbs. Recent reviews of the literature on rebound effects (Dutschke, Peters, & Schleich, ; Sorrell, Dimitropoulos, & Sommerville, ) indicate that while there appears to be evidence of the occurrence of rebound effects, there is still much debate about the ways in which rebound effects are manifested in the home and “what people actually do when they rebound” (Winther & Wilhite, , p. 596). There are competing explanations, not driven by economics or price signals that may explain why researchers observe an increase in energy use.…”

Analysis of the Practice of Network Technology in Electronic Information Technology

“…Meanwhile, a defense system can be installed, to prevent the system from being interfered with by external factors when processing information and offer a safety guarantee to system information, using firewall and safety protection software, etc. in network technology [5] Fig. 1 shows safety protection between intranet and extranet.…”