The limits of geektitude

Will consumers plug into home energy displays?:

Dozens of home energy monitors are coming to market, but nobody knows whether only hybrid Prius owners will use them.

Whole home energy monitors, or displays, are designed to help consumers conserve energy by providing far more detailed information than a monthly bill. These types of devices are already available, but millions more are poised to enter U.S. homes in the next two years, largely through utility-run smart grid programs.

The gadgets themselves vary, but the common thread among them is the ability to capture a stream of energy information from a meter at a given moment. Simply by surfacing real-time data, either with a small device or Web software, it’s believed the system will prompt people to change their habits and ratchet down consumption by 5 percent to 15 percent, according to studies (PDF).

But even as more sophisticated and user-friendly products come to market, it’s unclear whether consumers will track energy use regularly, particularly once the novelty wears off.

“Not everybody is an energy nerd yet,” said David Schatsky, principal at consulting company GreenResearch. “While people who study this area are aware of the energy space, the average consumer is not.”

The energy and enviro geeks (like me) will use these, but the much broader mainstream won’t until the perceived disutility of not doing it is greater than the perceived disutility of doing it.

In less economics-speak: It will happen when people are forced to do it via law (in which case the costs of breaking the law and getting caught come into play), or the cost of electricity is so high that they’re willing to put in the extra effort and expense to use this kind of system in order to save what they perceive to be an amount of money that’s of greater value.

Sheesh! Do I have to teach you people everything???