Why don't people weatherize their homes? An ethnographic solution

Richard R. Wilk and Harold L. Wilhite

Energy, 1985, vol. 10, issue 5, 621-629

Abstract: The authors' analysis of energy decision-making in 60 households in Santa Cruz County. California, reveals a seeming anomaly in consumers' energy decision strategies. Few households have taken advantage of the low cost and high savings potential of weather-stripping and caulking, though many have spent thousands of dollars on other energy-conserving investments that are expensive and have long payback periods. An ethnographic model, which incorporates sociocultural and psychological goals, makes this perplexing pattern comprehensible. We conclude that a model of strict economic rationality is inadequate in explaining energy-conservation behavior. The notion of rationality must be expanded to incorporate noneconomic goals. The failure to do so may have serious consequences for the marketing of energy-conservation products and programs.

Date: 1985
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0360544285900933
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:10:y:1985:i:5:p:621-629

DOI: 10.1016/0360-5442(85)90093-3

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().