New research finds changes in energy and water usage at home during lockdown, evidence that people were more compliant during the enforced lockdown.

Using data from utility sensors installed in 280 homes across social housing in Cornwall, our researchers tested for changes in people’s electricity, gas and water usage in response to changing government guidance throughout the pandemic.

Led by Dr Tamaryn Menneer of the University of Exeter, the findings show that usage patterns changed in the time that people were advised to stay (17 March 2020) and then instructed (24 March 2020) to stay at home.

Prof Karyn Morrissey, Smartline’s Principal Investigator said: “We used Big Data to understand how COVID19 changed people’s behaviour within their homes and speak about the impact increased utility bills may have on less affluent households.”

Changes in gas usage

Gas usage increased by 20% during the week leading up to lockdown (17-32 March), perhaps contributed to by changes in the weather. However we found no difference was seen during full lockdown itself.

Changes in electricity usage

During full lockdown, morning electricity usage shifted to later in the day, decreasing at 6 a.m. and increasing at midday.

Changes in water usage

These changes in energy were echoed in water usage, with a 17% increase during the full lockdown and a one-hour delay in peak morning usage. Changes were consistent with people getting up later, spending more time at home and washing more during full lockdown.

Other lockdowns

The research team also observed similar changes to energy usage in later lockdowns, but not between lockdowns.

So what do these results tell us?

Changes in energy and water were consistent with people getting up later, spending more time at home and washing more during full lockdowns. We found meaningful changes in utility usage during the UK COVID-19 pandemic, even though our research participants normally tend to spend a high proportion of time at home. Our findings suggest more compliance with an enforced stay-at-home message than with advice.

Inequalities of lockdown

Our findings also suggest that some people used more electricity at home during lockdown, but not people experiencing fuel poverty, perhaps because the increases were not affordable.

Other research has shown overall increases in energy usage during the UK lockdown in March 2020, which could increase bills and have an economic impact on households.

These impacts seem particularly likely to affect those in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, already suffering for inequitable impacts from the virus and unintended consequences of the lockdown.

Full citation:

Tamaryn Menneer, Zening Qi,Timothy Taylor, Cheryl Paterson, Gengyang Tu,Lewis R. Elliott, Karyn Morrissey and Markus Mueller, 2021. Changes in Domestic Energy and Water Usage during the UK COVID-19 Lockdown Using High-Resolution Temporal Data. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136818