We investigate whether risk, time, environmental, and social preferences affect single-family homeowners’ investments in the energy efficiency of their house using established experimental measures and questionnaires. We find that homeowners who report to be more risk taking are more likely to have renovated their house. Pro-environmental and future-oriented renovators, i.e. renovators with lower discount factors, live in homes with higher energy efficiency. Pro-social preferences as measured in a dictator game relates positively to the energy quality of renovated houses. Controlling for the energy efficiency of houses, we further find that energy consumption as measured by heating and electricity costs is lower for future-oriented and pro-environmental individuals.

我们使用既定的实验方法和问卷调查了风险，时间，环境和社会偏好是否会影响单户家庭对房屋能源效率的投资。我们发现，自称冒险的房主更有可能翻新房屋。有利于环境和面向未来的翻新商，即折扣系数较低的翻新商，居住在能源效率较高的房屋中。在独裁者博弈中测得的亲社会偏好与翻新房屋的能源质量成正比。在控制房屋的能源效率时，我们进一步发现，以供暖和用电成本衡量的能源消耗对于面向未来和亲环境的个人而言较低。