Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Residential electricity consumption behavior: Influencing factors, related MARK

theories and intervention strategies
⁎
Zhifeng Guoa, Kaile Zhoua,b, , Chi Zhanga, Xinhui Lua, Wen Chena, Shanlin Yanga,b
a
School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
b
Key Laboratory of Process Optimization and Intelligent Decision-making, Ministry of Education, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: The proportion of residential electricity consumption in the total energy consumption has increased rapidly in
Residential electricity consumption the past decades all over the world. It is becoming increasingly important to promote household energy
Influencing factors conservation for the sustainable development of a country in the case of resource constraints. This paper
Behavior interventions reviews and evaluates the existing research works which are related to the residential electricity consumption
Theories
behavior. Particular attention is given to the following aspects. (1) Factors influencing residential electricity
consumption in social psychology. (2) Theories of social psychology in understanding residential electricity
consumption behavior. (3) Different interventions aiming at encouraging households to reduce electricity
consumption. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of research on residential electricity
consumption behavior in the big data era.

1. Introduction consumption bills and related electricity consumption behavior.

Environmental pollution and scarcity of resources have become
major factors that affect the sustainable development of global
economy since 21st century [1]. Irrational use of energy has led to
environmental pollution and unsustainable development for a long
time. Electricity has played an essential role in our society [2].
However, the main way of generating is thermal power, which
accompanied with air pollution. In this sense, reducing electricity
consumption has been important implications for sustainable devel-
opment of society. The power demand of residents is a part of the social
power demand. The proportion of residential electricity consumption
has growing with increasing household appliances and population.
Residents only know the monthly consumption of electricity before the
popularity of smart meters. They have few information about the daily
consumption of electricity, and people always receive the past elec-
tricity consumption bills after several months. The comparison of
electricity consumption was lacked. Meanwhile, residents do not care
about consumption of electricity. With the popularity of first generation
of smart meters, people could know their electricity consumption every
day and even every 15 min [5]. People can pay off their electricity
consumption bills on the Internet. The pattern of electricity consump-
tion is more like the use of mobile phone. During this period, people
have begun to pay more attention to electricity consumption gradually,
so information makes the residents really give attention to their
At present, many scholars have done a lot of researches on
residents’ energy-saving behavior [3]. From the perspective of content,
the researches mainly focus on the following three aspects. The first
aspect is the analysis of the main factors that have effects on residential
electricity consumption behaviors, including household characteristics,
socio-economic factors, social-psychology factors and related environ-
mental behavior theory [17]. The second aspect is the statistical
analysis of electricity consumption's data. The regular pattern of
electricity consumption was found [6]. For example, residents with
the similar load profile can be clustered into one class with the help of
cluster analysis. The third aspect is the implementation of intervention
[11]. The researchers made an intervention on residents based on
psychological factors and mode of action. So we can reduce electricity
consumption by means of energy-saving intervention strategy.
With the development of big data and cloud computing, it is more
convenient to study the behavior hiding behind the electricity con-
sumption [34]. By means of the Internet technology, researchers can be
more convenient to investigate the behavior of residents that related to
electricity consumption. During big data era, it is possible to store and
analysis massive data. Power Company can give feedbacks about
electricity consumption to customers more frequently through big data
analysis [25]. We can draw more reliable conclusions with the support
of data mining, and further make more effective interventions.
The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize literatures

⁎
Corresponding author at: School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China.
E-mail addresses: zhoukaile@hfut.edu.cn, kailezhou@gmail.com (K. Zhou).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.07.046
Received 6 January 2017; Received in revised form 23 March 2017; Accepted 10 July 2017
1364-0321/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Guo et al.
related to residential electricity consumption. Firstly, the paper ana-
lyzes the vital factors influencing residential electricity consumption.
Secondly, we review the social psychological factors, their mechanism
of effecting, and related behavior theory. Finally we summarize the five
most common intervention strategies and research direction of resi-
dential electricity consumption in big data era.
2. Social psychological factors influencing residential
electricity consumption behavior
Home is the basic unit of electricity consumption, therefore the
reduction of electricity consumption per household will reduce the
electricity consumption of the whole society [27]. So we need to find
the factors which have significant impacts on household consumption
of electricity in order to reducing electricity consumption. Different
families have different structure, cultural background and ideological
concept. Under the influence of kinds of factors and their interactions,
each family has a different load profile. Meanwhile, different load
profile also reflect different family types and consumption behaviors.
This section summarizes the characteristics of the household from
many literatures [29,30,32,33] including: (1) Number of family mem-
bers. (2) Children. (3) Age composition of family members. (4) Level of
education. (5) Social status of family. (6) Family economic situation.
(7) The type of a house. The effects of different family characteristic
factors on household electricity are described in the following.
(1) Number of family members. The relationship between the num-
ber of households and electricity consumption has been studied
by many scholars. The majority of literatures showed that the
number of households has a positive impact on electricity
consumption. With the increasing number of households, house-
hold electricity consumption will also increase. Leahy and Lyons
[7] studied the electricity consumption of single and double
people in Ireland. By comparison, they found that a single
apartment have less than 19% of the electricity consumption
per week. Yohanis et al. [8] studied the relationship between the
number of households and electricity consumption in an apart-
ments in Northern Ireland. The results showed that the apart-
ment lived with four people or more people are used to consume
highest average annual electricity consumption. And there was no
obvious difference between houses lived with two people and
three people in average annual electricity consumption. Bartiaux
and Gram-Hanssen [9] investigated the relationship among the
number of families, housing type and electricity consumption.
The results indicated that the correlation between the number of
households and electricity consumption is the most significant. In
the three types of housing (independent, semi-independent,
apartment). The number of households has always been signifi-
cantly associated with electricity consumption.
(2) Children. Children is also an important factor affecting electricity
consumption [35]. Many scholars have made researches on the
relationship between the composition of the family members and
electricity consumption. There are two opposite results. A part of
the studies found that the composition of family members had a
significant impact on consumption of electricity. For example,
Mcloughlin et al. [10] studied on the relationship between
household electricity consumption and whether the family have
children or not. They found that the family had children consume
more electricity than the family had no children. Brounen et al.
[12] found that the family with a child consume more 1/5
electricity than the family without children. With the growth of
the child, household electricity consumption will also increase. In
Brounen's opinion, children tended to play computer, watch TV,
play games or other electrical device, these activities would lead
to consume electricity. However, Bartiaux and Gram-Hanssen [9]
had opposite conclusion. They found that the family with two or
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412
more children (children 0–9 years old) had a negative impact on
the electricity consumption, and having children has reduced the
average electricity consumption. Gram-Hanssen found that the
effect was significant in the Danish region, but was not in
Belgium. Wallisn et al. [87] analyzed the influence of the number
of adolescents on electricity consumption, they found that
adolescents’ frequent purchasing of IT appliances led to higher
electricity consumption. Cramer et al [24]. found that children
under 3 years old had no significant effect on household elec-
tricity consumption in the American family. However, for the
family has children over 3 years old, there was a significant
impact on consumption of electricity. However, in Ireland, Leahy
and Lyons [7] showed that families with children had no
significant difference in electricity consumption. Nakamura [28]
showed that the mother having child was easier to participate in
some schools and community organizations, and they tend to
know the information of energy conservation.
(3) Age composition of family members. According to Yohanis et al.
[8], the age of family member had influence on household
electricity consumption. And electricity consumption is relatively
high, when the age of the family member is 50–65. Electricity
Consumption is relatively lower, when the age of family member is
less than 50 years old or over 65 years old. Leahy and Lyons [7]
pointed out that electricity consumption of household where age of
the family member is between 45 and 64 was significantly higher
than that of 35–44 years old in Ireland. Household electricity
consumption decreased significantly when age of the family
member is more than 64 years old. Mcloughlin et al. [10] found
that household electricity consumption of family where age of the
member is 18–35 was less than 36–55 or 56. Researchers believed
that this is middle-aged family has more children and rooms. So
the consumption of electricity is more. Kavousian et al. [26] found
that in the United States, these families whose age of the family
member is more than 55 or 19–35 consume less electricity.
Filippini et al. [27] found in the India area, the family whose age
of responsible members is less than 45 have less consumption than
the family whose age of responsible members is older.
(4) Level of education. The educational level of the family member has
influence on electricity consumption. The conclusion is also
uncertain. Bartiaux and Gram-Hanssen et al. [9] found that
household electricity consumption decreased significantly as the
level of education increased. The family members with higher
degree of education consumed less electricity than the family
members with low education level. However, According to
Cramer et al. [24], the educational level of family members had
no significant impact on electricity consumption both in the United
States and Holland.
(5) Social status of the family. Social status has different influence on
electricity consumption according to current research's conclu-
sions. Mcloughlin et al. [10] found that socio-economic status of a
family had a significant impact on household electricity consump-
tion. And there was a significant positive correlation between
socioeconomic status and household consumption. The higher
social status of household consumption was accompanied with
more electricity consumption. However, according to Leahy and
Lyons [7], family members' economic status had no significant
impact on household electricity demand.
(6) Family economic situation. Economic situation mainly involves
two aspects [54]. On the one hand, it is the family income; On the
other hand, it is the family disposable income. These two aspects
reflect the economic situation of a family. A large number of
literatures showed that household electricity consumption in-
creased with income. Yohanis et al. [8] found that in Northern
Ireland, the households whose annual incomes of more than
30,000 Irish pounds consumed more electricity than the low
income families which has annual income of 10,000 Irish pounds.
Z. Guo et al.
One possible reason was that higher income families tended to
have a large area of housing and household appliances. This led to
more electricity consumption. However, efficiency of home appli-
ances and electronic devices is also vital to energy saving. Wealthy
families have ability to buy smart appliances and install related
home power management systems, some poor families can only
afford energy saving bulb. This situation will eventually change
with the development of economic. More and more people will
choose energy-saving equipment. Ozkan [81] used smart home
power management systems to reduce electricity cost and improv-
ing energy efficiency while maintaining their comfort. The result
indicated that the system provided improvements in terms of the
energy consumption reduction of about 5–16% compared to
conventional electronic devices usage.
(7) The type of a house. House is the basic unit of people's life,
different lifestyles are determined by the type of a house. In this
sense, different house will display various load profile. On one
hand, different type of a house display different consumption
behavior, on the other hand, individuals have different attitude
towards energy in different place. For example, there are the
distinction behavior between office and home settings. Littleford
et al. [82] investigated the relationships between energy consump-
tion behaviors performed in office and home settings. The result
indicates that the home setting is an important feature of the
energy use behavior. Dixon et al. [83] discovered the sense of
community is key factor in workplace energy conservation.
Therefore, type of a house is a vital factor that has an effect on
electricity consumption behavior.
3. Theories of social psychology in understanding residential
electricity consumption behavior
From a psychological point of view, the basis of a person's behavior
is driven by psychological factors [68]. Therefore, there is a complex
psychological process behind the energy consumption behavior, which
involves a number of psychological factors. In recent years, many
scholars have studied the behavior of energy saving from the perspec-
tive of psychology, and analyzed how these factors have influence on
behavior. This section summarizes various factors that affect the
behavior and the mode. The main psychological factors are attitude,
belief, values, culture, habits, preferences, subjective norms, environ-
mental awareness, and self-efficacy, etc. [69]. These psychological
factors affect the behavior indirectly. Person's behavior is influenced
by psychological factors through a variety of ways. Some scholars have
studied the effect of psychological factors from the viewpoint of
environmental behavior, and put forward the new social psychology
theory based on classical theory.
The behavioral theories are mainly social cognitive theory, social
norms theory, and theory of reasoned action, theory of planned
behavior, goal-oriented behavior model, value-belief–norm theory,
norm activation theory, self-regulated behavior change theory and
ABC theory [70–75]. Different behavioral theories are based on
different psychological factors and the general pattern of effecting.
Each theory has its own advantages and disadvantages. And as far as
the theory is concerned, it has been developing and improving.
Therefore, there exists many connections among different theories,
For example, from the theory of reasoned action to the theory of
planned behavior, and from the theory of planned behavior to the
model of goal-oriented behavior. Another example is that value-belief-
norm theory is the perfect of norm activation theory. Therefore, none of
the theories can explain all the environmental behavior, and each
theory has its own limitations. Therefore, in the study of electricity
consumption behavior, vital psychological factors should be deter-
mined by a variety of experiments. Table 1 presents a brief description
of each behavior theory.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412
3.1. Social cognitive theory
The famous American social psychologist Bandura first put forward
social cognitive theory [66]. The theory claims that the motivation
of the individual is the result of the interaction among the individual,
environment and behavior (see left panel Fig. 1). The individual refers
to people's belief, goal, attitude, intention, emotion, and so on, which
reflects the individual's cognitive ability. Environment refers to the
resources, the consequence of action and physical conditions, and it
reflects the objective conditions of individual. The interaction between
the individual and behavior shows that the individual's beliefs, goals,
attitude, intention and emotion will affect the one's behavior, and vice
versa. The interaction between behavior and environmental factors
shows that the environment is the result of the behavior, however the
behavior can also change the objective environment to make the
subject more suitable. The interaction between personal factors and
environmental factors shows that the main beliefs, goals, attitudes and
emotions are determined by environmental factors, but the effect of the
environment on the subject is not absolute.
According to social cognitive theory, self-efficacy and outcome
expectations are the most important concepts. Self-efficacy refers to
extent of confidence in one's own action. As a result, the higher the self-
efficacy is, the more likely he is to perform the action. Outcome
expectation is the result of one's likelihood of completing a task.
Positive outcomes are expected to promote individual behavior, while
negative outcomes are expected to hinder individual behavior.
As far as energy, a more pluralistic viewpoint is depicted in Fig. 1.
There are two panels in the figure. The left panel is macro factors that
originate from social cognitive theory, and the right panel is micro
factors that are summarized form many related papers. To some extent,
the right panel is concrete form of left panel. In reality, there are three
aspects that are related with individual's behavior. Namely, culture,
society and economic. Individual's decision environment is consist of
these three factors. Culture could have the most lasting impact on
people, education is a way to spread culture. Economic is important
factors that are have positive effect on energy-saving behavior. Many
scholars have many factors has been researched the relationship
between energy-saving behaviors and these factors. For example,
income has positive effect on electricity consumption by many scholars
[84] as mentioned earlier. Kyriakopoulos et al. [97] studied the issue of
technological advancements and the social acceptability of renewable
energy technologies and point importance of renewable energy tech-
nologies’ diffusion in the everyday life of people. Education on energy
issues is vital to students. They tended to form correct energy attitudes,
lifestyle and behavior that will be good for whole society with the help
of environmental education, and education has the most lasting impact
on people. Ntona et al. [85] researched on student's viewpoints and
attitudes about energy and its usage related to the environment, Their
findings indicated that the education need a vital change towards an
environmentally sustainable orientation. In addition to the school, the
family is an important place to cultivate habits of saving energy. Social
factors, such as subsidies have influence on electricity consumption
behavior. Nicolini and Tavoni [98] verified if policy support for
renewable electricity have been effective in promoting renewables in
the five largest European countries during 2000–2010. The result
indicated that these policies have been effective in promoting renew-
able energy, both in the short and in the long term. In general,
economic, social, cultural factors form a vital environment that has
important influence on decision process. Culture has a lasting and
stable influence on behavior. Social and economic factor have transient
effect, for example, if welfare can not last or people's financial status
gets bad, people will choose cheap products without considering
environmental factors.
In aspect of environmental behavior theory, many scholars re-
garded social cognition theory as the research framework and analyzed
the effect of various psychological factors. Thøgersen and Grønhøj [67]
Z. Guo et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412

Table 1
A brief description of behavioral theory.

Theory Author Description Refs.

Social cognitive theory Bandura Subjective initiative is the result of the interaction between the individual factors, the environment and behavior. [66]
Social norms theory Elster Social norms that created and observed by people; individual is expected to share in the group [80]
Theory of reasoned action Fishbein, Ajzen Person's behavior is determined by the behavior intention, behavior intention is affected by the attitude and [53,54]
subjective norm
Theory of planned behavior Ajzen Actual behavior is determined by behavior intention, and the behavior intention is affected by the attitude, [52]
subjective norms and perceived behavioral control effect
Model of goal-directed Perugini Attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control did not directly affect the behavior intention, but the [59]
behavior affect behavior intention through desire which were an intermediate variables
Norm-activation-model Schwartz People's environmental behavior is the result of norm, belief and value [50]
Value-belief-norm theory Stern Values, beliefs, and personal norms affect a person's behavior gradually, from values to action in turn [51]
Self-regulated behavior change Bamberg The theory suggests that a person's behavior can be changed under certain conditions, even if the behavior has [55]
theory been a habit
ABC theory Guagnano Individual behavior is the result of mutual effect between attitude and the external context [57]

Macro factors Micro factors

Environmental
factors Economic factors
resources welfare
others financial status
action results employment
physical
condition

Social factors
cohesion
Behaviors
inclusion
acceptability

Individual factors
belief Cultural factors
goal family
attitude environment
intention humanistic
emotion background
education profile

Fig. 1. Interactions among environment, behaviors, and person [66].

constructed the framework to analysis electricity saving behaviors in
households based on social cognition theory (see Fig. 2). In addition to
the psychological factors, the social structural factor was also put into
model as an influencing factor. Self-efficacy and outcome expectation
are the main factors influencing the behavior intention. The socio-
structural factor and perception of others’ behavior are known as
structural factors. The proposing assumptions are as follows. (1)
Individual's behavior is affected by outcome expectations, self-efficacy,
socio-structural factor, perception of others’ behavior and goals. And
outcome expectations self-efficacy, socio-structural factor and percep-
tion of others’ behavior cannot only have a direct impact on the
behavior, but also indirectly influence behavior through goal. (2) The
outcome expectation, self-efficacy, perception of others’ behavior, and
socio-structural factor have mutual influence among themselves. (3)
Outcome caused by individual's behavior can give feedback on the
outcome expectations and self-efficacy socio-structural factor.
Researchers verified hypothesis through a questionnaire and the
establishment of structural equation model. The results suggest that:
(1) we should change the socio-structural environment to be more
convenient for energy saving behaviors. (2) Feedback about their
household's electricity consumption is a vital factor that has influence
on their own behavior.
3.2. Social norms theory
Norms first comes from the Latin word Norma, which means a
ruler. However, the standard concepts came into the social psychology,
which owing to the famous social psychologist Sherif's experiment in
1936 [61]. From then on, the norm theory has become an important
theoretical in many social sciences. Norms in the field of sociology are
also known as social norms that is proposed formally by Elster [80]. To
a certain extent, social norms and norms have the same connotation.
Social norms have different definitions with the development of society.
In the earlier years, according to Sherif [61], it was defined as customs,

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Attitude
Outcome
expectations

Intention Behavior
Goals
Subjective
norm
Self-efficacy
Fig. 3. Theory of reasoned action [53,54].

Environment
Behavior al knowledge

Sociostructural
factor Environment
al awareness

Environment
Outcome al attitude
Perception of
Intention Behavior
others behavior Economic
of green of green
background
purchase purchase
Fig. 2. Social cognitive model based on behavior and learning [66].

traditions, standards, rules, values, fashion and so on. Recently, a
concept that is more generalized is what the individual is expected to
share in the group. Social norms are divided into descriptive norms and
the injunctive norms in general. The descriptive norm is to point out
what most people are doing, and the injunctive norms is to point out
the behavior that others disapproval of [62].
The impact of social norms on individual behavior is mainly divided
into three stages according to Kelman [63]. The first stage is com-
pliance. During this period, the individual try to change their behavior
in order to get a reward or avoid punishment on the surface. The
second stage is identification. After a long-term impact, the individual
begins to consciously abide by the expectations of others. The third
stage is internalization, and in this stage, individual really accept the
external values from the heart, convert the social norms into personal
norms, and regard it as long-term guidance. Social norms on human
behavior are mainly reflected in pro-social behavior, especially for the
pro-environmental behavior [65]. Person's behavior can be influenced
by social norms through different ways. There are different models
according to the different perspective, such as the norm activation
theory, value-belief-norm theory, and the theory of planned behavior.
In the field of consumption of electricity, reduction of electricity
consumption has taken good effect by social norms. The most success-
ful is the case of OPOWER Company [64]. OPOWER send Home
Energy Report letters to residents, in order to make intervention. It
also provides social norms information, which compares the household
electricity consumption and their neighbors’ consumption in report.
The results showed that the average treatment effects is 2%. Therefore,
social norms is of great significance for reducing electricity consump-
tion.
3.3. Theory of reasoned action
Theory of reasoned action (see Fig. 3) was proposed by Fishbein
and Ajzen in 1975 [53,54]. The theory proposes that a person's
behavior is determined by the behavior intention, and the greater the
behavior intention is, the more likelihood he will perform the behavior.
Behavior intention is affected by the attitude and subjective norm,
attitude is extent of supporting behavior. Subjective norm refers to the
Technologica
l development
Peer pressure
Energy label
Fig. 4. Research model [23].
external pressure to perform or not to perform a certain behavior. And
the pressure is caused by others. The contribution of the theory of
reasoned action is to consider the social factors such as the subjective
norm, it means behavior is not only affected by their own attitude but
also by the outside world.
Many scholars have constructed energy consumption behavior
model based on theory of reasoned action. Zainudin [23] used
the TRA (theory of reasoned action) to construct the framework,
which designed to display process of public green purchase intention
(see Fig. 4.). In this model, the researchers supposed that public's
willingness to buy environmental product is influenced by environ-
mental knowledge, environmental awareness, environmental attitude,
environmental attitude, peer pressure and the energy label. The
researchers hypothesized that: (1) Environmental knowledge, environ-
mental awareness, environmental attitude and behavior intention
indirectly influenced people's behavior by means of peer pressure. (2)
Environmental knowledge, environmental awareness, environmental
attitude, and peer pressure had positive impact on behavior intention.
These hypotheses were verified by constructing a structural equation
model. The final analysis results showed that environmental knowl-
edge, environmental awareness, environmental attitude and peer
pressure played a positive role in promoting green energy purchase
intention, and environmental label on green had a negative impact on
energy purchase. However, economic background and technological
development also have significant influence on green purchase inten-

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Z. Guo et al.
tion (see Fig. 4). In this sense, environmental knowledge, environ-
mental awareness, environmental attitude, environmental attitude,
peer pressure, energy label, economic background and technological
development form a more practical framework (see Fig. 4), and many
scholars have done many researches under this framework. Pothitou
et al. [89] gave attention to the impact of knowledge about environ-
mental, attitudes, habits and energy issues on potential pro-environ-
mental behavior in households. The results showed that significant
correlations which indicate that residents with positive environmental
values and greater environmental knowledge were more likely lead to
energy-saving behavior. Testa et al. [91] researched the determining
factors behind individuals' decisions to purchase energy saving pro-
ducts. They found that personal norms and trust in information
provided by private companies and family and friends have influence
on adoption of energy-saving purchases. Suki [92] investigated the
influence of consumption values (i.e. functional value, social value,
emotional value, conditional value, and epistemic value) in environ-
mental concern on purchasing of green products. They found that
social value has most important impact on consumers' environmental
concern as expressed by their purchase of green products. Ramayah
et al. [93] analyzed how individual values and attitudes in a developing
country influence purchase intention of a green product from the
perspective of the TRA. Results indicated that individual consequences
relating to amount of effort and convenience of consumers was
negatively related to intention to purchase of green product. Olson-
Hazboun et al. [94] analyzed the relationship between environmental
beliefs, climate change opinions and support for renewable energy
through questionnaire of five communities in the Rocky Mountain
region of the U.S. The results showed that public support for renewable
energy was less related to environmental than to some other factors,
including economic benefits. Hast et al. [95] analyzed consumers’
attitudes towards green energy in China and their willingness to
purchase of green electricity or renewable energy systems. The results
indicated that willingness to pay for a green electricity product is
influenced by income, building type, how promising the renewable
energy potential is seen. As mentioned earlier, financial status are high
related with electricity consumption on matter national level or
individual level. Technological development is another factor that
promote green purchase. Kyriakopoulos and Arabatzis [96] pointed
that implementation of electrical energy storage systems should
consider the diffusion of innovative technologies and comparison
between innovative technologies and traditional technology.
3.4. Theory of planned behavior
In 1991, Ajzen [52] proposed the theory of planned behavior (TPB),
which was an extension of the theory of reasoned action (TRA).
According to the theory, there exists a complicated psychological
process behind the individual behavior. The behavior is the results of
a series of mental processes [60]. The actual behavior is decided by
behavior intention, and the behavior intention is affected by the
attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (see
Fig. 5). Behavioral attitude is extent of a person's support or not
support a behavior. Subjective norm refers to the social pressure that
people perceives when to decide whether or not to perform a particular
behavior. Perceived behavioral control refers to the ability to perform a
behavior. Accurate perception behavior control reflects the actual
control conditions, it can be used as an alternative measure of the
actual control conditions, so it can also be used as a direct impact on
the behavior (as shown in Fig. 5). The accuracy of the prediction
depends on the perceived behavioral control. Individual and social
cultural factors such as personality, intelligence, experience, age,
gender and cultural background affect the behavior intention and
behavior indirectly through behavior control behavior attitude, sub-
jective norm and perceived behavioral control.
Some scholars have done a lot of researches on psychological
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412
Behavioral
attitude
Subjective Behavior
Behavior
norms intention
Perceived
behavioral Direct
impact
control
Fig. 5. The theory of planned behavior [52].
processes hidden behind the residential electricity behavior according
to the theory of planned behavior. Scott et al. [16] used the theory of
planned behavior to do a survey of energy usage through a series of
questions that are related with beliefs in British Yorkshire and Humber
area. They measured the relationship between people's attitudes and
the rate of adopting energy-saving device. The results showed that: (1)
People who use energy saving devices easier were worried about
abnormal changes in the global temperature. (2) The extent of
familiarity with energy-saving device had impact on the rate of using
energy saving devices. Residents were more willing to use familiar
energy-saving devices. (3) As far as different energy-saving devices, the
respondents showed significantly different in the behavioral attitude,
subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Based on the theory
of planned behavior, Abrahamse and Steg [17] put forward the
following hypothesis. (1) There was a strong correlation between
household energy consumption and social demographic characteristics
(such as income, family population). (2) Energy consumption was
mainly determined by psychological factors. The results of regression
analysis showed that the use of household energy was determined by
demographic factors. Yazdanpanah et al. [18] studied on the relation-
ship between social psychological factors and renewable energy.
Researchers concluded that the social psychological factors (such as
behavior, perception, and subjective norm) had significant impacts on
the adoption of the Energy Sources Renewable (RES) project. The
researchers collected information from 260 students by questionnaires.
The relationship between attitude toward RES, behavior attitude,
perceived behavior, subjective norm and behavior intention was
analyzed by means of structural equation model. The final results
showed that the code of ethics and behavior attitude and perceived
behavioral control significantly affected the residents’ willingness to
use renewable energy, but subjective norm and self-recognition did not
significantly affect attitude toward renewable energy.
Botetzagias et al. [19] studied the relationship between different
factors and energy-saving behavior by telephone interview. He re-
garded demographic characteristics, psychological factors and moral
factors as explanatory variables, energy saving behavior is viewed as
the explanatory variable for regression analysis. The researchers put
forward the hypothesis that the power saving behavior depends on the
demographic characteristics, psychological factors and moral factors.
The results showed that age, gender and perceived behavioral control
had significant impact on power reduction. Paul et al. [31] constructed
a new research framework (Fig. 6) by add concern environmental
variables to the theory of planned behavior. He explored the factors
that have influence on the willingness of Indian customers to buy green
products by confirmatory factor analysis through a questionnaire. The
results showed that customer attitudes and perceived behavioral
control can predict behavioral intention. However, social norms did
not predict the intention. The results also showed that environmental
concern and attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control
and purchase intention were positively correlated. Therefore, environ-
mental concern can indirectly affect purchase intention through
Z. Guo et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412

Attitude Attitude
Autonomous
motivation

Environmental Subjective Purchase Actual Positive

concern norm intention behavior anticipatory effect

Negative
Perceived Desire Intention Behavior
anticipatory effect
personal
control

Perceived
Direct impact behavioral control

Fig. 6. Research model [31].

Past behavior
attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, and it can
also directly affect the purchase intention. So when a person has a Subject norm
positive attitude towards green products and a high environmental
concern, he is more likely to buy green products.
Fig. 8. Research model [58].

3.5. Model of goal-directed behavior
Perugini and Bagozzi [59] proposed a model of goal-directed
behavior based on theory of reasoned action and theory of planned
behavior (see Fig. 7). The theory pointed out that attitude, subjective
norm and perceived behavioral control did not directly affect the
behavior intention, but the affect behavior intention by desire was an
intermediate variable. And he put forward the concept of anticipatory
effect. Anticipatory effect a dynamic reflection of reality. Anticipatory
effect is divided into positive anticipatory effect (such as the desire for
success) and negative anticipatory effect (such as fear of failure). In the
model of goal-directed behavior (see Fig. 7), attitude, subjective norm,
positive anticipatory effect, negative anticipatory effect, perceived
behavioral control have effect on desire that have effect on behavior
intention. Behavior intention ultimately affects the behavior. Model of
goal-directed behavior was an improvement of the theory of reasoned
action and theory of planned behavior. They pointed out that psycho-
logical factors have important effect on behavior such as desire. Some
researchers have applied the model of goal-directed behavior to energy.
For example, Webb et al. [58] established a new theoretical frame-
work based on Model of goal-directed behavior (Fig. 8). He added
Attitude
Subject
Positive
Desire Intention Behavior
anticipatory effect
Negative
anticipatory effect
Perceived
behavioral control
Fig. 7. Model of goal-directed behavior [59].
autonomous motivation factor and past behavior to model of goal-
directed behavior. He intended to find most significant explanatory
variable through the survey analysis. The results showed that auton-
omous motivation factor has most signification ability to predict
behavior than other variables, such as behavior intention, subjective
norm, perceived behavioral control, and past behavior.
3.6. Norm-activation-model
The norm-activation-model was proposed by psychologist Schwartz
in 1977 [50]. The model explains the intrinsic mechanism of people's
pro-social behavior in the perspective of psychology. Pro-social beha-
vior refers to all kinds of behavior that be beneficial to others or society,
such as: environmental protection, energy-saving behavior, water
conservation and other environmental behaviors. Schwartz [50] de-
scribed the process of people's environmental behavior (see Fig. 9) by
introducing the conception of social norms, person norms, awareness
of consequence, and ascription of responsibility. Social norms refer to
values, attitudes and behaviors that most people identify with in
society. Person norms refer to the moral obligation of a person.
Person norms are the specific embodiment of social norms and
mainstream values of the society. And what he behavior criterion
reflected to the individual is the personal norms. Awareness of the
consequences is that a person's attention to the consequences that
caused by person's choice. Ascription of responsibility is refers to the
negative consequences of cognition that caused by ignoring the action.
According to norms of social activation theory, social norms have effect
on the individual through personal norms, but the person norms do not
lead to environmental behaviors definitely. To some extent, it depends
on the person's situation, which means that environmental behavior is
also influenced by awareness of the consequences and ascription of
responsibility. In other words, Person norm will cause the environ-
mental behavior when awareness of the consequences and ascription of
responsibility are relatively high.
Zhang et al. [44] studied on the factors that have effect on electricity
saving behaviors in the company using the norm-activation-model. The
researchers pointed out that electricity saving behavior in company is
different from electricity saving behavior in family. For example,
workers who consume electricity in a company do not need to worry
about spending money. In this case, saving electricity behavior is
driven by moral norms. Researchers added organization electricity
saving climate into the original model (see Fig. 10). They measured

405
Z. Guo et al.
Awareness of
consequence
Social norms Personal norms
Fig. 9. Normative-activation-model [50].
explanatory variable through the questionnaire and analysis data by
partial least squares method. Results showed that when the employees
have higher person norms, they are more likely to save electricity.
However, higher organization electricity saving climate has weakened
the influence of personal norms that has positive effect on energy
consumption behavior. When employees feel a higher ascription of
responsibility, awareness of consequence and organization electricity
saving climate, the staff is more likely to form strong personal norms.
Personal norms have positive impact on energy saving behavior. Han
et al. [45] combined the norm-activation-model with model of goal-
directed behavior in order to establish a new theoretical framework.
The research results showed that the integrated framework has more
explanatory power than the norm activation theory or model of goal-
directed behavior.
3.7. Value-belief-norm theory
Stern et al. [51] put forward the value-belief-norm theory that
combined with the value theory, norm-activation-theory and the new
environmental paradigm in 1999. The new environmental paradigm is
proposed by Dunlap and Liere Van [56]. It is an effective tool to
measure the environmental awareness, and NEP is short for new
ecological paradigm (see Fig. 11). The theory pointed out that values,
beliefs, and personal norms affect people's behavior gradually. Value-
belief-norm theory consists of five variables, namely, values, NEP,
awareness of consequence, attribution of responsibility, environmental
ethics (see Fig. 11). Values is mainly consist of the ecological values,
altruistic values, and self-interested values. NEP represents the general
belief of people. Value-belief-norm has been expressed the transition
from values to environmental behavior by a series of psychological
changes. In value-belief-norm theory, a person's environmental beha-
vior will occur only when he thinks it is his obligation to protect the
environment. People will have NEP in their minds under the influence
of a variety of values. And awareness of consequence, attribution of
responsibility and environmental ethics proceed from the initial values
to energy saving behavior in turn.
In recent years, many scholars have studied the psychological
factors that affect residents’ behavior by means of the value-belief-
norm framework. Fornara et al. [20] used the value-belief-norm theory
to study the relationship among the individual values, NEP, the
consequences of consciousness, responsibility attribution, environmen-
tal ethics and the willingness to buy green equipment. They measures
people’ values, NEP, awareness of the consequences, attribution of
responsibility, environmental ethics, and the purchase of green equip-
Awareness of Ascription of
consequence responsibility
Fig. 10. Research model [44].
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412
Ascription of
responsibility
Environmental behavior
ment through questionnaire and analysis the relationship among them
with the help of structural equation model. The results showed that the
relationship between the sense of responsibility and the responsibility
attribution is not significant. Han [41] combined value-belief-norm
theory with the theory of planned behavior to form a new theoretical
framework (see Fig. 12). The lower part is the value belief norm theory
and the upper part is the theory of planned behavior. The results
showed that the integrated framework performs better than the single
theoretical framework.
3.8. Self-regulated behavior change theory
Bamberg [55] put forward self-regulated behavioral change theory
(SSBC) based on the theory of norm activation theory and the theory of
planned behavior in 2013. The theory suggests that a person's behavior
could be changed under certain conditions, even if the behavior has
been a habit (see Fig. 13). Self-regulated behavior change theory is
mainly applied to the analysis process of complex behavior. The self-
regulated behavior change theory is divided into four interdependent
stages, that is, pre-decision, pre-action, action, and post-action. Four
states proceed in turn. There are also goal intention, behavioral
intentions, implementation intention and new behavior in the modal.
The goal intention refers the desire to achieve some kind of goal. The
goal intention is through a series of psychological processes as well as
the outside interference realization. Aiming at producing a goal, a
person need to feel the negative impact of their current behavior first of
all, it will have a sense of responsibility. This sense of responsibility will
produce negative emotions, and ultimately in the role of social norms
and negative emotions, resulting in the intention of the target. When a
person in the role of multiple factors to produce a target intention, it
will be the transition to the second stage, which is, the stage of behavior
and the stage of behavioral intention. Behavior intention refers to a
person's specific behavior to achieve the goal. The main factors that
affect the realization of intention are behavior plan, cognitive plan and
the ability to keep the plan. When the goal of the implementation of the
intention to reach, after entering the stage of behavior. Behavior is
mainly used in the third stage of the behavior, so as to achieve the real
change behavior.
In recent years, many scholars have begun to utilize self-regulated
behavior theory to study residents’ energy consumption behavior.
Based on the framework, Nachreiner et al. [21] investigated the
relationship between smart meter information feedback and energy
saving behavior. In the first stage, researchers provided residents with
information of electricity consumption. In this case, electricity con-
Organizational
electricity
saving climate
Person Electricity saving
norm behavior
Z. Guo et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412

Value Individual
Belief Behavior
norm
Values of the
ecological

Altruistic Awareness of Ascription of Environmental Environmental

NEP
values consequence responsibility ethics behavior

Self -interested
values

Fig. 11. Value-belief-norm [51].

Attitude
toward the
behavior

Perceived
Behavioral
behavioral
intention
control

Subjective
norm

Biospheric Ecological Awareness of Ascribed Sense of obligation to take

value worldview consequences responsibility pro-environmental action

Fig. 12. Research model [41].

sumption information makes residents know their electricity consump-
tion, people begin to set an energy-saving target. In the second stage,
the researcher provided more detailed information on the electricity
consumption, including each home appliance. In this case, residents
learned consumption of each home appliance. They know which home
appliance consumes most, and people begin to form behavior intention.
In the third stage, the researchers provided people with many energy-
saving skills, and people begin to make a plan for saving energy. In the
fourth stage, people will be change energy-saving behavior into habits.
Based on the SSBC framework, Mack and Tampe-Mai [22] developed
an information system for making interventions on electricity con-
sumption behaviors, the system mainly included: (1) electricity con-
sumption and related data visualization (2) feedback chart (3) con-
sumption analysis module (4) what is the tile (5) module the source

Predecision Preaction Action Postaction

Emotions anticipated
with goal progress

Salient social Goal Behavioural Implementation

Personal norms New behavior
norms intention intention intention

Negative
go
emotion Attitude
toward and Action
perceived planning
Perceived behavioural cognitive
Perceived Recovery
goal control over planning
responsibility self-effancy
feasibility alternative maintenanc
behavioural e self-
change efficacy
Perceived strategies
negative
consequences
of own
behaviour

Fig. 13. SSBC model [55].

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Positive
Behavior
occurrence
External
conditions
Adverse Favorable
Behavior does not
occur
Negative
Attitude
Fig. 14. ABC model [57].
and climate information (6) comparison module (7) target setting
module (8) energy saving module (9) energy-saving skills module. The
system is used to support the behavior of different stages in the SSBC
model. In the energy and climate information module, people can
understand the current global climate and energy status of the world,
as well as the important significance of emission reduction. Under the
intervention of all kinds of information, the residents have the goal
intention and tend to show more energy-saving behaviors.
3.9. ABC theory
Guagnano et al. [57] proposed ABC theory in the study of garbage
collection issues. The theory considers that individual behavior (B) is
the result of mutual effect between attitude (A) and the external context
(C). The theory deems that a person's behavior is not only affected by
the individual's attitude, but also by the external environment. ABC
theory emphasizes the impact of external factors (see Fig. 14). The
horizontal axis represents the external conditions. The vertical axis
represents the attitude. When external conditions and attitudes are
greater than zero, behavior will occur. Behavior will not occur when the
external conditions and attitudes are less than zero. When the external
conditions are in a favorable position, action will occur.
In the ABC theory, Guagnano emphasized the influence of external
environment on the behavior of a person. He pointed out that when a
person's attitude tends to zero, the external environment have a
determined effect on person's behavior. At this point, if the external
environment is very favorable for behavior, it will greatly promote the
occurrence of behavior; on the contrary, if the external environment is
unfavorable for behavior, it will greatly prevent the occurrence of a
person's behavior. In the same manner, when a person implements a
behavior that costs much, the occurrence of behavior will depends on
the attitude. ABC theory provides a new way of thinking for the
research of energy saving behavior.
4. Intervention strategies
The number of household electrical equipment has been increasing
with the development of social economy, the same as the proportion of
residential electricity consumption. Therefore, advocating energy-sav-
ing behavior has been an important issue for society. For a long time,
household electricity behavior did not get enough attention. With the
number of household equipment increases, electricity consumption
accounted for the proportion of whole electricity consumption has
increased too. In this sense. A number of studies have shown that
intervention strategies can be used to reduce energy consumption. In
this section, common five kinds of intervention strategies is reviewed,
including commitment, goal setting, providing information, reward,
result feedback. Among many intervention strategies, goal setting,
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412
providing information and result feedback are most used. Some
researchers try make a comprehensive intervention strategy by means
of the combination of five basic interventions. The results showed that
the effect of the comprehensive intervention strategy is better than the
single intervention strategy. The following briefly describe different
intervention strategies and the corresponding literature.
(1) Commitment. Commitment is one of the most common interven-
tion strategies. Commitment is achieved by oral contract or written
contract in which people promise to change their behavior for the
reduction of electricity consumption. There are various forms of
setting goal for people. At the beginning, the effect of intervention
strategies were obvious, but the effect of intervention begin to get
worse after a period of time.
Katzev and Johnson [13] sent a paper contract to different
families, and it required people to reduce energy consumption by
10%. After a period of time, household that accept contract
consumed less electricity compared with these who refused to
accept the contact. The researchers further did another interven-
tion experiment. The experiment compared commitment with
other intervention strategies such as rewards and comprehensive
intervention strategy. The results showed that comprehensive
intervention strategy has best effect on reduction of energy
consumption. Commitment is used as an intervention strategy
frequently in earlier year, in recent years, commitment is less used,
at the end of experiment, the residents’ behavior is as usual as
before. In this case, Commitment cannot lead to sustained energy-
saving behavior.
(2) Goal setting. Goal setting is to set a goal for the family, such as
reduction of 5% or 15% electricity consumption. The target value
can either be set by the family itself, or it be set by the researchers.
Target value cannot only be determined in the form of absolute
value, but also determined in the form of proportion. Goal setting
is used by most researchers. The goal that set too high or too low
often led to worse effect.
Becker [14] set two targets for different households, one is
relatively easy to reach (saving 2%) and another is difficult to reach
(saving 20%). At the same time, the experimental group received
feedback every week. In the experimental period, researchers
provided with information about energy-saving skills. The results
showed that these household that received a higher goal of saving
20% electricity saved most (15.1%). The experimental indicated
that higher goal of reducing electricity consumption is achieved by
providing with energy-saving information. Harding and Hsiaw
[46] executed a plan that aims to encourage people to set a goal by
themselves in Northern Illinois. The results showed that the
reasonable goal of saving electrical consumption is achieved, and
household saved average of nearly 11%, which is significantly
higher than those whose targets are too low or too high.
Abrahamse et al. [47] performed an energy-saving intervention
in Groningen. The households were divided into two groups. The
first group received tail information, tail feedback, and goal setting
(5%). The second group is regarded as the control group without
any intervention. During 5 months, researchers performed three
aforementioned interventions, and the final results showed that
comprehensive intervention strategy reduces the energy consump-
tion by 5.1%.
(3) Providing information. Providing information is another common
intervention strategy. Information is about environmental pollu-
tion, the significance of saving electricity and the tips of saving
energy. Providing information cannot only improve residents’
awareness of energy conservation, but also increase the knowledge
of energy conservation. There are also a variety of ways to provide
information. Common way of providing information is mass
communication. The aim of providing information is to change
people's consumption behavior from the heart, so providing
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information often have the effect of changing people's behavior.
Hutton and Mcneill [15] assessed the effect of the Low Cost/No
Cost energy conservation program of the US Department of
Energy, The project tried to achieve the goal of saving energy by
provide people with energy-saving manual and a nozzle control
device. The results showed that these families that received the
manual could master skills to reduce energy consumption.
Hargreaves et al. [37] tried to make an intervention by persuading
people to install the smart meter. Residents can obtain the real-
time condition of electricity consumption with the help of smart
meter. However, after a year, the researchers found that most
families let the smart meters to run in the background state. The
use of smart meters does increase the people's knowledge of
electricity consumption, but after a long time, the smart meter
does not reduce the electricity consumption due to various reasons.
Komatsu and Nishio [38] investigated the effect of providing
information in Japan, they provided household with their neigh-
bor's electricity consumption information. The results showed that
a household's consumption of electricity is associated with their
neighbor's electricity information.
(4) Rewards. Rewards is an intervention that encourages people to
reduce the electricity consumption by giving them a certain
amount of incentives. Awards mainly consists of economic reward
and social reward. Economic reward is to give the family a certain
economic incentives, and the number of economic incentives can
be fixed or changed with the quantity of saving. Social reward
mainly refers to encouragement through public propaganda.
Economic rewards can receive obvious effect of intervention at
once, and social incentives are better than the economic incentives
in the long term.
Handgraaf et al. [48] conducted a research on the effect of
economic rewards and social rewards. He selected company's
employees as target sample in Holland. Social rewards are positive
descriptive reviews. And each of rewards have two forms, namely
give people rewards public or secretly. Researchers provided
different rewards according to employees’ weekly electricity con-
sumption during the period of 13 weeks. The results showed that
social incentives have better effect than the economic incentives.
And public reward is better than the secret reward. Bertoldi et al.
[49] pointed out that in earlier years, economic incentives are
mainly used to support the promotion of efficient technology
equipment for reducing the CO2 emissions, but not to change the
people's behavior.
(5) Feedback. Feedback provides the family with their electricity
consumption and energy saving tips. Form of feedback is very rich
according to frequency. There are continuous feedback, daily
feedback, weekly feedback and monthly feedback, etc. According
to the feedback content, there are daily electricity consumption,
the monthly electricity consumption and annual electricity con-
sumption. Some feedback includes synthetic index, such as daily
growth rate, month growth rate, and the rankings in the region.
From the way of feedback, it is not only text messages but also web
feedback through the Internet. Feedback's content can also be a
series of number, and it can also be combined with multimedia
pictures. Different form of feedback will have different effects.
Carroll et al. [4] studied effect of provide knowledge of energy
efficiency tips with people through feedback, and the results showed
that the household who received a feedback once a month reduced the
power consumption by 2.9%. Nilsson et al. [36] provided feedback
through installing intelligent hardware device in people's house.
Feedback information includes daily electricity consumption, week
electricity consumption and electricity consumption trend. The results
showed that intelligent hardware device did not have significant impact
on electricity consumption. The researchers pointed out that an
important reason is that people are lack of ability of understanding
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intelligent device, namely intelligent device is two difficult for people to
use. Another reason is that people are not interested in consumption
information, so intelligent hardware device cannot always be useful.
Hargreaves et al. [37] found that after a period of time, the residents
tend to adjust the status of intelligent device into background mode,
rather than having the positive interaction with it. Burchell et al. [42]
studied the effect of feedback that based on intelligent community.
Different from the traditional intelligent hardware feedback mode,
people gained their own electricity consumption information through
the weekly e-mail feedback that sent by researchers. E-mail consists of
not only people's own electricity consumption information, but also the
average electricity consumption of the whole intelligent community
and some useful energy saving tips. The results showed that people can
participate in this form of feedback in long term. And they can draw
women's attention, ultimately people tend to change the behavior.
Matsui et al. [43] installed electricity consumption monitoring system
in people's house. It provided people with electricity consumption per
15 min through the web page. In addition to the people's recent
electricity consumption data and some tips, people's knowledge
improved obviously after a year's intervention, and electricity con-
sumption is decreased. Karjalainen [40] investigated people's prefer-
ence for forms of feedback. He displayed eight different chart to people
through the questionnaire analysis. The results showed that people is
most interested in three kinds of information, namely, electricity
expenses, proportion of household appliances accounted and other
people's electricity consumption information.
5. Research direction of residential electricity
In recent years, the Internet has become an indispensable part of
people's daily life. The rapid development of cloud computing technol-
ogy and big data provide new opportunities for the study of residential
behavior. However, many new challenges follow too. During the
Internet era, the residents are not only the electricity consumption
groups, but also belong to net citizen. More and more people are willing
to share some of their daily activities on the Internet, which are true
reflection of the way of life, values, habits, educational level, and so on.
Residents’ social network activities and online shopping information
can be used to analyze the energy consumption behavior of residents.
Compared with the traditional way of questionnaire, the residents’
behavior in the social network more truly reflects the pattern of the
residents’ behavior. So analysis of residents’ behavior by Internet is an
important direction to electrical consumption behavior. The Internet
environment has also bring some new challenges in the field of
residential electricity. For example, first of all, how to get the informa-
tion of daily activities of residents and analyze them is a big challenge.
The second is how to discover the electricity consumption behavior
according to people's online information. Residents left a lot of
information on the Internet, but this information is not a direct
mapping of consumption behavior. So it is necessary to conduct a
multidimensional analysis. In this case, the pattern behavior of
consumption behavior can be discover. Therefore, how to explore the
pattern of behavior becomes a new challenge for this field. Based on the
summary of the previous literatures, this section puts forward two
aspects of the analysis of the behavior in the Internet. The first is how
to use the Internet and data mining technology to dig the typical load
profile of electricity consumption and related pattern of behavior. The
second is to develop personalized intervention strategies for each
family based on the pattern.
(1) Big data analysis. With the help of big data and cloud computing
technology, it is possible to store and analyze massive electricity
data, and to explore the pattern of electricity consumption. From
the point of time, the daily pattern of electricity consumption can
be explored. The pattern of the week, month, quarter and year, and
peak and valley will be found easily. From the perspective of
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region, it can be used to explore the pattern of electricity
consumption in different regions. It is also easy to discover these
households which share with similar load profile by means of data
mining. Electricity demand predication is another import issue
that could be done batter by the big data technology. For example,
Rathod and Garg [88] discovered electricity consumption pattern
at regional level in a city and extract knowledge concerning to the
electricity consumption by data mining. Pre-processing of data,
application of DM algorithms and discovered knowledge are
involved. Zhou et al. [76] discovered consumption patterns of
residential users by fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering method in
Jiangsu Province in China. He found eight kind of typical
electricity consumption profiles of residential users, and different
profile indicated people's different lifestyles. Hussain et al. [77]
forecasted total electricity consumption by means of Holt-Winter
and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models
from 1980 to 2011 in Pakistan. The result was useful for Power
Company. Ramos et al. [78] discovered typical load profile by
combining classification and clustering. First, they clustered daily
load profiles into several typical profiles. Second, they used labeled
sample to train a multi-class model. Finally, they did the out-of-
sample prediction. This was a meaningful research, because
clustering will be difficult during big data era. Furthermore,
discovering people's behavior pattern hide behind typical load
profile is important. In order to achieve this goal. However, mining
users’ behavior is more difficult, because the people's behavior is
not a complete mapping form electricity consumption data. In
earlier studies, researchers often investigated the behavior through
the questionnaire. However, the questionnaire has problem of
simple and low credibility. In the Internet environment, we can
grasp the behavior of the residents from different perspectives.
Social network is an important way to analyze the behavior of the
residents. Through the collection and analysis of data from social
network, we can have a batter knowledge of the people's behavior,
so as to get the pattern of the residents’ electricity consumption
behavior. In this case, we should combine energy with big data into
energy big data. Energy issue should be handled by many related
disciplinary. Zhou and Yang [79] proposed a framework of the
interdisciplinary research of energy, social and information
science. Under this framework, a new perspective is that people
energy consumption behavior can be analyzed in time dimension,
user dimension and spatial dimension. During the big data era,
there is a stronger connection between energy consumption and
behavior. It is beneficial for us to discover typical load profile and
behavior pattern. Zhou et al. [86] pointed out that Energy Internet
will be a new development form of energy system. It realized the
integration of energy flow, information flow and business flow. In
this case, electricity consumption was not merely an energy issues.
Recently, deep learning, a very powerful machine learning algo-
rithm, is applied in electricity load forecasting. For example,
Dedinec et al. [90] used a deep belief networks make short-term
electricity load forecasting based on the Macedonian hourly
electricity consumption data during the period 2008–2014. The
results showed that the mean absolute percentage error was
reduced by up to 8.6% when using deep learning compared with
traditional method. Once obtaining typical load profile, on the one
hand, the power company can convey it to the residents through
the visual feedback technology and stimulate the attention of
residents for consumption of electricity. On the other hand, it
can be better to develop intervention strategies according to the
pattern of consumption.
(2) Intervention framework and individual intervention strategies. The
theoretical basis of the experimental intervention is mainly based
on various behavioral theory, such as social cognitive theory, social
norm theory, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned beha-
vior, and norm activation theory. In the earlier years, the
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 81 (2018) 399–412
researchers have made intervention experiment depend on single
behavioral theory. In recent years, some scholars have begun to
combine different behavioral theories into a new theoretical
framework and got good results. Therefore, it is a new trend to
combine different behavioral theories to make the intervention
experiment, because each behavioral theory has some limitations,
and the combination of different theories can overcome the
limitations. Any behavioral theory is not suitable in all cases, so
the combination of the theory with regional cultural factors to form
a new framework is the challenge of intervention strategy research.
The family is the basic unit of electricity consumption. Every family
has a different load profile, which reflects the behavior of family
members. Different families have different values and ways of life.
During the big data era, we can use cloud computing technology to
mine the pattern of behavior that hidden behind load profile.
Furthermore, we can make different intervention strategies ac-
cording to the different family. In this case, each family will receive
most suitable intervention strategies. In previous studies, scholars
have provided the same intervention strategies for all families in a
region. In the big data era, the pattern of action could be
discovered in all aspects, so as to make a personalized intervention
strategy for each family according to the pattern of human
behavior.
6. Conclusions
This paper first the review vital factors that influencing people
energy consumption in the aspect of social psychology. We also review
related behavioral theories that have effect on energy consumption
behavior, including social cognitive theory, social norms theory, theory
of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, goal-oriented behavior
model, value-belief–norm theory, norm activation theory, self-regulate
behavior change theory and ABC theory. Then, a review of the five
common strategies of intervention in residential electricity consump-
tion is conducted, namely, commitment, goal setting, providing in-
formation, reward, and feedback. Finally, in big data era, this paper
points out the challenges and opportunities in field of residential
electricity consumption.
The factors reviewed in this paper are mainly related with social
psychological, there are many other factors that we do not consider.
Intervention strategies need to be determined in specific environment,
we cannot give a comprehensive review in aspect of the combination
energy, information and behavior. This is the direction of our future
research.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Nos. 71501056, 71690235), China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (No. 2017M612072), the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (No. JZ2016HGTB0728), Anhui Provincial
Natural Science Foundation Program (No. 1608085QG165), Anhui
Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (No.
AHSKQ2015D42), and the Foundation for Innovative Research
Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
71521001).
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