Design options to test the effects of financial incentives in a utility conservation program: TVA's heat-pump water-heater program

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:5832274

Berry, L; Tsao, H; Hirst, E

Several experimental designs and analysis techniques are described and assessed. Using TVA's Heat Pump Water Heater Program as a carrier, it addresses questions related to financial incentives such as: (1) Do TVA residential customers prefer loans or rebates. (2) What is the incremental effect of financial incentives on conservation investments relative to information-only programs. How does the effect vary with increases in the incentive. (3) How do users of financial incentives differ from nonusers. The five design alternatives include both household level and distributor level data collection and analysis. The designs are: (1) random assignment of households to treatments within distributors with matching; (2) random assignment of households to treatments within distributors without matching; (3) random assignment of treatments at the distributor level; (4) random assignment of households to treatments within distributors that are randomly selected from matched blocks of distributors (combination of designs 2 and 3); and (5) nonrandomized design that uses whatever data are available. These methods are assessed in terms of administrative difficulties, strength of conclusions (both internal and external validity), and the costs of data collection and analysis.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5832274
• Report Number(s): ORNL/CON-125; ON: DE83016344
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320101* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Residential Buildings-- (-1987)
APPLIANCES
DATA ACQUISITION
DECISION MAKING
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
ENERGY CONSERVATION
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
HEAT PUMPS
HEATERS
HOUSEHOLDS
RESIDENTIAL SECTOR
SURVEYS
WATER HEATERS