Get to Know Your Customers Better
Published: March 17, 2010
Michael Reid
In spite of ever-increasing equipment efficiencies, household energy usage continues to grow in many sectors and regions. Consumers’ energy-use patterns have substantially changed over the past 10 years, especially due to the growth in plug loads. In addition, people’s attitudes about the environment and energy efficiency are also changing. These market dynamics beg the question: How well do you actually know your customers?
E Source has recently mined data and insights from the comprehensive 2009 Nielsen Claritas Energy Audit, a survey of 32,500 heads-of-household across the U.S. on saturation of appliances and equipment, interest in utility-sponsored products and services, and attitudes toward energy utilities. The data can be used to help analyze market potential, drive higher participation in your programs, or get a different perspective on who your residential customers are and what they’re thinking.
Here are a few of the findings that we think are especially interesting—perhaps you will, too.
Chances are, even your grandmother uses compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Energy-efficient bulbs are no longer exotic. More than four out of five households have at least one CFL, and over one-quarter claim 10 or more. Those numbers are way up from 2007 when household penetration was only 50 percent. Heavy CFLs users tend to be older, wealthier, and suburban; younger, less-well-off customers still lag.
Freezers, freezers, everywhere. Overall, 40 percent of households have a stand-alone freezer—an appliance that hasn’t received much attention in utility demand-side management programs. Freezer saturation is distinctly higher in the Midwest, topping 50 percent in the West North Central region (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas). The numbers are remarkably consistent across income categories.
Tankless water heaters are niche appliances—except in New England. Nationally, just 2 percent of households have a tankless water heater, but someone must be doing a great job of promoting them in New England, where 10 percent of homes have gone tankless.
Newer rate options appeal to younger customers. Customers in the 25- to 34-year-old age bracket are most willing to give time-of-use (TOU) rates a try. Curiously, this group is also most interested in fixed or flat billing plans, which offer a level of risk protection dramatically different from TOU rates.
West Coast utilities receive high marks for energy helpfulness. Nearly 70 percent of consumers in the Pacific region agree with the statement, “My home energy utilities offer programs and information to help me manage my energy use.” Customers in this region are also among those most likely to characterize their energy bills as “fair.”
Green your home, then your car. Utilities that expect to promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), take note: Customers who have had a whole-house energy audit are nearly four times as likely as the average customer to say they will buy a PHEV as soon as they become available.
This knowledge can be helpful for load forecasting, energy-efficiency and demand-response planning, and implementing programs that better meet the needs of your customers. Market research studies like this one can help you learn more about your customers’ energy-use patterns, program needs, and attitudes.
If you’re interested in learning more about this market research study and how it can be customized for a specific utility, please contact Ken Black, E Source executive vice president. |
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About the Author
Michael Reid
RESEARCH DIRECTOR, E SOURCE
Michael Reid, a research director at E Source, investigates and reports on products and services for mass-market customers, energy-efficiency policies and programs, and utility regulatory issues. In addition, he was the principal developer of DSMdat, the E Source database of energy-efficiency and demand-response programs. |
