Comfort, consciousness and costs – transitions in Norwegian energy culture 1991-2010

In most countries there is an increased focus on energy efficiency and energy reduction of households which is seen as vital for solving the climate problem. None the less, the energy consumption in most Western societies seems to be stable or increasing. To get a better understanding of the energy cultures shaping the energy use of the households is crucial in order to explain the difficulties achieving a permanent reduction of private energy consumption and how to alter the consumption patterns of the future. In this paper we analyze Norwegian energy culture over a period of 19 years. We focus on how users understand energy consumption in two periods: 1991-96, which is the early period right after the economic liberalisation of the Norwegian electricity market, and 2006-2010, when climate change has risen to the top of the public agenda and the liberated electricity market has been operating for two decades. How do the issues of global warming, national discussions related to energy supply, and mechanisms of the energy market influence the reasoning and practice regarding energy consumption and the organization of everyday life in these periods? This analysis demonstrates that whilst energy consumption and climate issues represented two different discourses in the first period, these issues were closely connected in the last period. However, there are only small changes in everyday practices. The mechanisms of the deregulated energy market are not fully understood in any of the two periods, although the energy culture in the last period is marked by more price conscious consumers.