If you knew how much power went into your shower, you’d get out sooner.
That’s the conclusion of a study of 20,000 showers in six Swiss hotels equipped with real-time feedback on how much energy is going into keeping your shower warm and comfortable. The study was conducted by the ETH Zurich university.
The smart meters were placed in hotel showers because researchers wanted a test situation in which the subjects had no financial interest in limiting the amount of energy that went into heating water, as they would have at home.
And the results? Guests whose bathrooms had the displays used 11.4% less energy than those without. Verena Tiefenbeck, senior research associate at ETH Zurich university, told reporters that the study showed that people are not always motivated by money, and that “Environmental campaigns do not need to focus on financial benefits, which may disproportionally put pressure on poor people or may even backfire, as many people might say ‘I don’t care, I can afford it.'”
