Differences in perception: How the experts look at energy efficiency (findings from a Finnish survey)

Using energy efficiently is generally considered to be essential for a continuing prosperous future. As a result, improving efficiency has become a focus of attention, and recently a lot of time and effort has been expended to develop new energy efficiency methodologies and technologies. Considering the amount of focused attention, the rate of improvement has not been encouraging. Human behaviour is an important factor of the energy efficiency challenge, and research has revealed several consumer profiles with significantly different perceptions on energy issues. In this study, the focus is not on consumers but on energy efficiency professionals. A number of Finnish energy efficiency professionals from both the private and public sectors were surveyed revealing that experts have decidedly different perceptions regarding energy efficiency.