Customers Use More Energy, Blame Utilities for Higher Bills

A recent national study found that Americans overwhelmingly blame their utilities and inefficient homes for rising energy bills, although the numbers show that their actually using a lot more energy.

The Shelton Group, based out of Knoxville, conducted the study. It found that customers are much more likely to blame their rising bills on their own home's inefficiency (25%) or utilities (18%), rather than their own higher consumption of energy (12%).

A full 80% of Americans surveyed believed that their energy consumption stayed the same or decreased compared to the past. While it's easy to point fingers when it comes to the cost of energy, data shows that Americans are actually using more energy, and this is resulting in higher bills.

Susan Shelton, CEO of Shelton Group stated, "We're seeing an unfortunate consumer tendency to avoid responsibility for wasting energy Instead, more people are blaming outside forces over which they feel they have little or no control. It's a case of learned helplessness: People are giving up on conserving energy because they think there's nothing they can do."

The study found that consumers are less interested in energy conservation and energy-efficiency improvement investments and hold unrealistic expectations of return on investment via lower bills:

• When asked how much they would have to save to make an energy efficient investment of $4,000, the average respondent replied with $139 per month. That's an unrealistic expectation of 85% savings on the average utility bill.
• The number of respondents who said that they'd have to save $200 or more per month increased from 10% to 16% from last year. To save this much, those customers would have to be off the energy grid and generating their own energy.
• The number of expected future purchases of energy efficient improvements and products is down from last year: Those who expected to purchase a new efficient water heater in the near future declined from 20% to 15% over the past year, and efficient windows dropped from 18% to 15% (solar systems actually increased from 24% to 32%).

So what can the industry do to make customers more aware of their own energy consumption and conservation? Shelton Group provided some answers for utilities and service providers:

• Invest in smart meters and energy-monitoring tools in order to get customers more engaged andknowledgeableabout their own use.
• Offer incentives that reward energy-efficiency improvements and investments.
• Shift to time-of-use billing to give homeowners incentives to not use energy at peak use times.

Shelton concluded, "It's all about giving consumers a feeling of control Americans want power over their utility bills, and right now, they feel they don't have that."