Households in energy transition: Promoting household energy-sufficient routines via app-based peer-to-peer interaction

We engage a community of ca. 200 voluntary Swiss households in using a smartphone app that provides energy consumption feedback and offers peer-to-peer interaction possibilities to share experiences on household routine change. Surveys prior to and three months after app use, in-app usage analytics, and analysis of in-app posts indicate that most households preferred individual-level consumption feedback: app-mediated peer interaction was only performed by a small household subsample, precluding community-level social learning. Most self-reported daily energy routines changed after app use, though effect size was generally small, apart from thermostat settings. Also, we found most app users were already well-informed on energy topics and engaged in energy savings at home. Future research could explore how to better reach alternative audiences for app-based interventions, and improve the effectiveness of social interactions to collectively experiment with new sustainable practices, therefore giving less prominence to individual-level app features.