Childhood home temperatures and community connectedness can influence how people set their thermostats, with those from warmer childhood homes tending to set higher temperatures as adults, and those with stronger community ties adjusting their thermostats to align with others in their community.
A study by Dritjon Gruda and Paul Hanges, published in PLOS Climate, surveyed 2,128 participants in the U.S. to understand thermostat settings and the influence of childhood home temperatures and community connectedness.
Encouraging residential energy conservation through better thermostat usage could reduce national energy consumption, decrease fossil fuel usage, and help combat climate change, but financial incentives and values-based messaging have had disappointing results.
Community fit plays a role in determining thermostat settings and heating energy saved during winter, with individuals with strong community ties setting their thermostats lower during winter.
Community connectedness may not directly lead to energy savings in affluent communities.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq
Sources: IFLScience, Medindia, Mirage News, Scienmag, Phys.org, Tech Explorist.