Prompting Electrical Energy Conservation in Commercial Users

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of prompting and an ancillary self-monitoring procedure for increasing energy conservation behavior. Specifically, posters were installed in men's restrooms on a college campus with the aim of prompting users to turn off lights upon leaving the room. Three observations per day were I made in ten rooms over a 44-day period. A multiple-baseline design showed successive reductions in percentage of times the lights were on when rooms were unoccupied of 63%, 46%, and 50% after 12, 23, and 33 days of baseline, respectively, in three groups of rooms. Characteristics of the intervention that should have contributed to its efficacy include clear specification of the desired behavior, close temporal and spatial contiguity between the prompt and target behavior, and provision of feedback via the self-monitoring component.