Work Package 2 (2016)
Scientifically, an important development within CREST has been the realization of the first wave of the household survey (SHEDS) in April 2016, which has been a crucial milestone after two years of preparatory work. The corresponding questionnaire has been developed with the contribution of all groups involved in WP2 (St. Gallen, Geneva, ETH Zurich, Neuchâtel, Basel and ZHAW) and is therefore a great achievement of the interdisciplinary endeavour of several research groups. The SHEDS has been successful in two dimensions. First, the design has been successfully tested and yielded the desired data. Second, first analyses of the data have shown that the main idea on which the survey is based has been affirmed: Households differ substantially with regard to their pattern of energy consumption and the segmentation strategy of the survey is useful to describe these differences. Furthermore, different types of energy use (mobility, electricity, heat, warm water) have different patterns of heterogeneity. The survey is of high relevance for the impact of CREST, as it provides the basis for designing steering and intervention strategies that are tailored to different household segments and types of energy use. This opens an important pathway for attaining the energy demand reduction objectives of the ES 2050.
Prof. Dr. Mehdi Farsi, Dr. Sylvain Weber, Prof. Dr. Paul Burger, Dr. Annika Sohre, Dr. Iljana Schubert
University of Neuchâtel, University of Basel