Browsing by Subject "Electricity crisis; Practice theory; Price; Electricity consumption"

The heating season 2022–2023 was exceptional in Finland due to the electricity crisis. Electricity saving became a hot topic in public discussion, and households reduced their electricity consumption significantly. This study focuses on the changes that happened in detached house dwellers’ everyday routines: how detached house dwellers’ electricity consumption-related practices changed, and why they changed during the electricity crisis. Understanding how changes happen in electricity consumption-related practices is especially important in the ongoing era of the energy transition. The study is situated within social scientific energy research and the theoretical framework is based on the theories of practice. The study draws on six in-depth interviews of Finnish detached house dwellers living in the Helsinki metropolitan area or the Uusimaa region. The interviews focused on changes in detached house dwellers’ electricity consumption-related practices during the electricity crisis. The results of the study indicate that some practices are more flexible than others. The interviewed households controlled and replaced the material elements of some practices, especially heating devices of indoor spaces and household water. A new practice of monitoring electricity prices was adopted by households with spot-price electricity contracts, who also time-shifted some of their practices based on the price. The interviewed households focused especially on reducing electricity consumption which they considered ‘extra’ consumption. Some of the households also challenged some comfort-related norms and conventional ways of conducting certain practices. Electricity price was stated as the primary reason to change electricity consumption-related practices. Some of the interviewees also mentioned recommendations for saving electricity impacting their practices. It is interpreted that new meanings of scarcity were attached to electricity during the crisis. Electricity became a more visible element of practices, which led the interviewed households to reflect on their electricity consumption on a general level