Citation: Bustamante, C.; Bird, S.; Legault, L.; Powers, S.E. Energy Hogs and Misers: Magnitude and Variability of Individuals’ Household Electricity Consumption. Sustainability 2023, 15, 4171. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054171 Academic Editors: Pedro F. Pereira, Ricardo Forgiarini Rupp and Enedir Ghisi Received: 31 December 2022 Revised: 20 February 2023 Accepted: 21 February 2023 Published: 25 February 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Energy Hogs and Misers: Magnitude and Variability of Individuals’ Household Electricity Consumption Claudia Bustamante 1 , Stephen Bird 2 , Lisa Legault 3 and Susan E. Powers 1, * 1 Institute for a Sustainable Environment, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 13699, USA 2 Institute for a Sustainable Environment and Political Science, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 13699, USA 3 Department of Psychology, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 13699, USA * Correspondence: spowers@clarkson.edu; Tel.: +1-315-268-6542 Abstract: We use circuit-level granular electricity measurements from student housing and statistical analysis to better understand individuals’ electricity consumption. Two key patterns emerged— individuals varied systematically in their magnitude of electricity use as well as in their variability of usage at the hourly and daily level. A cluster analysis of electricity consumption in individ- ual bedrooms shows that 18% of students consume 48% of total electricity use at a median of 2.17 kWh/d/person. These few energy hogs have a disproportionate impact on electricity consump- tion. In contrast, the misers (22% of students) consume only 4% of the electricity (0.18 kWh/d/person). Mini-refrigerators in bedrooms contributed substantially to the total electricity use of the moderate users. In contrast, mini-refrigerators were less influential for energy hogs, suggesting that these residents may draw power in others ways, such as by using powerful computing or gaming systems for hours each day. A sub-cluster analysis revealed substantial individual variability in hourly usage profiles. Some energy hogs use electricity consistently throughout the day, while others have specific periods of high consumption. We demonstrate how our analysis is generalizable to other situations where the resident does not directly pay their utility bills and thus has limited financial incentive to conserve, and how it contributes to a deeper understanding of the different ways in which individuals use energy. This allows for targeting interventions to groups with similar patterns of consumption. For example, policies such as fines or fees that might reduce the excessive electricity use for short times or for individual hogs could result in potential savings ranging from 16–33% of bedroom electricity. Keywords: energy conservation; occupant behavior; end-use; residential buildings; university; individual electricity use 1. Introduction In the U.S., the residential sector accounts for 22% of total energy consumption and about 19% of carbon dioxide emissions [1,2]. Federal and state policies have focused on reducing this energy use to decrease fossil fuel consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save money for homeowners. Approaches to tackle this problem involve understanding interconnected technical, physical, and human factors. Technical and physical factors include climate, building enve- lope, and building infrastructure [3]. Human factors, such as operation and maintenance, indoor environmental conditions, appliance use and occupant activities and behavior, can have a greater impact in reducing energy consumption than technical and physical factors [3]. Similarly, Zhao et al. found that advanced technological building systems con- tributed to 42% of the potential for energy efficiency, suggesting that 58% of the potential for energy efficiency lies in human-influenced factors [4]. An extensive amount of literature has emerged to understand and respond to human factors in the residential sector, particularly in terms of occupant activities and behavior to- wards energy conservation. Residents need better information about their utility use [5–9]. Sustainability 2023, 15, 4171. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054171 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability