IHD simulation - P007

P007

Home Appliances

Q316 Appliances in home ...

• Said that he didn't know whether some of his appliances were electric or gas
• Understood what a hot water heater was

Electricity Use Questions

• Didn't know either questions ($ or kWh)

Pre-test

Ranking Appliances

Q253 Rank the ten appliances below ...

• Got energy usage probes correct
• Utilized a ranking method by comparing appliances to a light bulb
  • Stated that the electric oven at 450 degrees makes the kitchen hot in 10 min, so it must use more than a light bulb
• Asked whether the washing machine was a high efficiency one because the one he has at home was energy efficient
  • Believed that it still used more than a light bulb
  • Noticed his bill gets higher the more laundry he does
  • Thinks the increase in usage is attributed to the washing machine and not dryer
• Believed that fridge and freezer were essentially the same in usage

Electricity Cost / Electricity Use

• Believed that when people are using less, the cost will be lower for the utility
• Wasn't sure whether the question only applied to households
  • Wasn't sure how it would rank differently
  • Didn't seem to get the concept that cost for the utility is dependent on both residential and commercial demand

Electricity Definitions

Q321 Units of electrical energy called

• Didn't know

Q828 Power rating

• Thought that each appliance hod a power rating for how much it used for a given amount of time
• Thinks it has to do with multiplication but he doesn't know

Cost of a kWh

Q257 Avrg Cost

• Complete guess

Ranking Energy Saving Actions

Q824 Rank actions

• Believed that proactive saving actions save more energy (i.e. reducing temperature on water heater, turning up the temperature on the AC, etc)
• Was concerned about whether the washing machine was efficient or not
  • Used his own usage patterns to rank the actions but wasn't sure whether it was supposed to be his own actions or for the average household
  • Average household usage not clear to him
• Wanted to know what consisted of the US household (i.e. 4 householders)
• Wanted to know how often does the US household uses the dryer (every week? every month?)

Simulation Introduction

• Was shown the Smith's introduction
• Was anchored on the three appliances that were shown in the picture
• Understood that it was a mid-sized home
• Understood their budget was $150

Passive Learning

• Said that most of the rankings he made were pretty much on target
• Didn't know that a refrigerator was that different in usage compared to a freezer
• Wasn't very vocal when thinking aloud
• Surprised by dryer and washer
  • He was just trying to memorize the ranking
  • Said his guess for the Electricity Cost / Use question was pretty much the same

Post-Test

Q296 Electricity Knowledge Questions

• Was anchored to the four appliances that were shown in the images for the Smith's Family
  • When asked why he only used those 3 appliances, he said that he thought those were the appliances that made up the budget
• Reiterated energy saving actions

Evaluation Phase

• Should people who get the passive learning condition still see the evaluation phase sections?
• Thought that 20% reduction was "reasonable" because his family was not "egregious" on usage as is
  • This plays into the unrealistic reduction forecasts made by people
  • Self-set goals might lead to a lot of unrealistic expectations

Demographics

• Was questioning how the self-efficacy questions pertained to first part of the survey

Hypothesis: Electricity hyoptheticals were meant to instill a sense of one's impact and usage of resources

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