Using Behavioral Science to Lower Energy Bills


Since 2007, startup Opower has quickly become a leader in energy efficiency - growing from offering simple paper-based energy reports into a full-spectrum, SAAS (software as a service) residential efficiency player, according to greentechmedia.

With mobile apps, a big data business and a thermostat partnership with Honeywell, Opower's got the residential energy landscape covered. How has the company persuaded consumers to reduce their energy use and save $250 million since 2007?

Alex Laskey, Opower's co-founder, explains the simple idea: behavioral science used to created peer pressure. In this TED2013 talk, he explains that "For the last five years, we've been running the largest behavioral science experiment in the world." It's worked. In January, the company achieved a milestone: achieving two terawatt hours of energy savings -- enough to take all the homes in a city the size of Sacramento off the electric grid for a year.

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Images: Alex Laskey At TED2013, James Duncan Davidson