My research focuses on using both consumer behavior models and building energy simulations to evaluate the energy efficiency gap across the United States. Many homeowners and building operators could significantly reduce energy consumption through energy efficiency investments and behavioral changes.
However, even after hundreds of millions of public dollar investments into efficiency incentives and educational programs, many homeowners have not been motivated to take action. To solve this problem, mandatory energy audits are becoming more common in an effort to reduce building energy usage, but recent surveys have indicated that most residential homeowners might not understand the energy audit results or be unwilling to install the upgrades that reduce home energy consumption. By studying different consumer decision making models and systemic market failures (e.g. principal-agent problems), I hope to identify the reasons why homeowners do not adopt the technologies and offer potential suggestions to positively influence energy consumption behavior.
Bachelor of Science, Chemical Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin, May 2014
Bachelor of Arts, Plan II Honors
The University of Texas at Austin, May 2014
Business Foundations Program, Mccombs School of Business
The University of Texas at Austin, Summer 2010
Study Abroad, National University of Singapore, Fall 2011