Testing the effect of defaults on the thermostat settings of OECD employees

• Published in: Energy economics 2013-09, Vol.39, p.128-134
• Main Authors: Brown, Zachary, Johnstone, Nick, Haščič, Ivan, Vong, Laura, Barascud, Francis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Behavioral economics; Behavioural economics; Control systems; Economic data; Economics; Economics and Finance; Employees; Energy; Energy economics; Energy efficiency; Energy policy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Field experiments; General, economic and professional studies; General. Economical aspects; Heating; Heating, air conditioning and ventilation; Humanities and Social Sciences; OECD; Office buildings; Organization for economic cooperation and development; Regression analysis; Space heating. Hot water; Studies
• ISSN: 0140-9883; 1873-6181
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2013.04.011

We describe a randomized controlled experiment in which the default settings on office thermostats in an OECD office building were manipulated during the winter heating season, and employees' chosen thermostat setting observed over a 6-week period. Using difference-in-differences, panel, and censored regression models (to control for maximum allowable thermostat settings), we find that a 1°C decrease in the default caused a reduction in the chosen setting by 0.38°C, on average. Sixty-five percent of this effect could be attributed to office occupant behavior (p-value=0.044). The difference-in-differences models show that small decreases in the default (1°) led to a greater reduction in chosen settings than large decreases (2°). We also find that office occupants who were more apt to adjust their thermostats prior to the intervention were less susceptible to the default. We conclude that this kind of intervention can increase building-level energy efficiency, and discuss potential explanations and broader policy implications of our findings. •We conduct a randomized controlled trial to test if thermostat defaults affect agent behavior.•Two treatments (schedules of default settings) were tested against a control for 6weeks at OECD.•Small changes in defaults had a greater effect on chosen settings than larger changes in defaults.•Occupants who frequently changed their thermostats in baseline were less affected by defaults.•Thermostat defaults in office environments can be manipulated to increase energy efficiency.