Utility Pulse
About the Study
Shelton Group 2011 explored consumer perceptions of energy efficiency products, utilities and common utility demand side management (DSM)/energy efficiency programs in order to:
- Ascertain savings expectations and completion rates for energy-related home improvements
- Measure perceptions of a variety of financial incentives for those improvements
- Discover how many participants in utility efficiency programs are potentially free riders—people who were going to act anyway, but used the incentive to reduce costs
- Develop a thorough psychographic profile of the four American consumer energy segments:
- Cautious Conservatives, Concerned Moms, True Believers and Working Class Realists
- Determine whether or not renters (along with homeowners) would be an appropriate target for efficiency improvements
- Measure consumer reactions to and interest in time-of-use billing plans, load control, smart meters and online energy information management systems
This year’s study offers over 300 pages of charts and graphs for each survey question, thorough audience profiles and segmentation, cross-tabulations and specific marketing strategies and messaging recommendations to help keep your target audience motivated to invest in energy efficiency.
Methodology
Shelton Group designed a quantitative survey fielded via the Internet from October 29–November 3, 2010. The survey contained a mix of fixed-response alternative questions, Likert scale questions and semantic differential scale questions. Shelton Group utilized Survey Sampling International's online community of more than 3.5 million respondents for sampling. The survey was stratified to mirror the geographic, gender and age distribution of the population aged 18+ (227,434,466) in the United States. The survey yielded 1,003 complete responses. Survey sample data were weighted slightly to match U.S. age, education, race and region, resulting in a weighted sample of 1,032 respondents. We've found the online panel sampling methodology yields results comparable to a probability sample of the U.S. population aged 18+ completed via random digit telephone dialing, producing a 95 percent confidence level and a confidence interval of +/- 3.05 percent (margin of error).
The Utility Pulse sampling methodology shifted from telephone interviewing in 2009 to an Internet sample of over 1,000 respondents in this year’s study. Home ownership screening was also adjusted this year to include a limited number (11%) of renters, since several questions about energy-efficient purchases (such as light bulbs and DSM billing options) were deemed appropriate for renters.