A large majority of the French say they are ready to consume less energy, or believe they are already doing so, primarily to lower their bills, according to Energy Broker’s annual barometer.
In total, 31% of respondents say they are ready to change their behavior and 59% say they are already aware and can do no more. Only 10% say they won’t change their habits or haven’t decided yet, according to published results.
Among the most cited gestures, turning off unnecessary lights (75%), lowering the heating in case of absence (61%), not leaving electrical appliances on standby (60%), lowering the heating temperature (58%).
Around 69% of households say they have reduced heating in the home to limit the amount of bills. They are more and more, as they were 53% in 2020.
As a result, 22% of households surveyed this year say they have suffered from the cold for at least 24 hours (compared to 20% in 2021 and 14% in 2020).
Some 27% say they have struggled to pay some energy bills (18% in 2020). Again this year, the 18-34 year olds are the hardest hit, 51% declare difficulties.
“Energy consumers agree to participate in the national effort for energy sobriety”, emphasizes the energy mediator Olivier Challan Belval in his commentary on this study.
However, there are still measures that need to be made more widely known, such as moving some electricity consumption during the day outside the periods of high consumption, which are 8am to 1pm and 5.30pm to 8.30pm.
“Shifting some of your electricity consumption to a time other than during peak load is one of the actions that is less often mentioned, probably because it is not yet well understood,” he notes.
Ecological reasons are the second motivation for consumers, after bills, “it must be explained that a changing consumption is good for the planet, as it avoids running more polluting production facilities”, he adds.
Survey conducted by the research institute Becoming from 1 to 16 September with a representative sample of 2,006 households surveyed electronically for the fourth consecutive year.
