Abstract Summary
Energy poverty is the result of low income, high consumption and costs and poor energy efficiency of the home. Energy poverty affects nearly 50 million homes in Europe (Boeri et al., 2020). Although the EU has an agenda and a policy for this, the Netherlands does not have a policy, leaving municipalities, social welfare organizations and households with a lack of funding, framework and flexibility to fix the problem (Feenstra et al., 2021). Recent research has provided a spatial analysis of energy poverty across the Netherlands, covering 79% of all homes. In doing so, they have data as granular as the neighbourhood scale (Mulder et al., 2023). However, this spatial data needs to be complimented with temporal data to uncover how energy poverty interventions are experienced over time so that more tailored policies can be defined. This study addresses gaps in energy poverty intervention literature by using a mixed-methods intervention, exploring why behaviors change and looking beyond efficiency measures alone. It does so with the help of an existing organization (Woon) and their energy coaches. We test 3 interventions in 101 homes in 3 groups: those who only receive a single report on their energy-use, those who receive the report and have efficiency products installed, and those who receive the report, efficiency products and dynamic feedback on all 3 factors of energy poverty (income, consumption and efficiency) with a smart energy display It is expected that findings will help local Dutch governments and organizations with the necessary knowledge to tackle the energy poverty problem that has yet to be defined in policy.
