Patterns of household electricity consumption in Norway as a function of psychological factors, socio-economic constellations and access to electric appliances

To explore the complexity of household living conditions and their relation to electricity consumption, the socio-technical constellations they create for themselves and the perceived ease of saving electricity, we conducted a clustering analysis to categorise Norwegian participants in an electricity-saving programme based on environmental concerns, personal norms and socio-economic parameters. We also explored if the household clusters differed in perceived risk of energy poverty. A sample of 1,135 Norwegians participated in the study in 2023. A two-step cluster analysis resulted in five distinct clusters which we named: (1) older couples with moderate environmental concern; (2) eco-ease in midlife; (3) middle-aged females in medium-sized households; (4) growing families with moderate concerns; and (5) moderate advocates with adolescents. Analysis of variance indicated significant variations in mean scores of environmental concerns, access to energy appliances and perceived behavioural control implement energy-saving tips across clusters ( p <0.01), but no difference in perceived risk of energy poverty. The results show that changes in the living situation, especially children moving out, seems to have strong effects on per capita electricity consumption, if the housing infrastructure is not adapted to the new family size. Lower environmental concern particularly impacts electricity consumption negatively in the time after children leave the household, and the same can be concluded for gender roles with females being more motivated to save electricity. Based on these results we recommend to more actively support these transitions of living situations, but also support existing sustainable energy use practices or connect electricity saving to other motivations (like supply security) for clusters where environmental concern is low.