Are you an energy saver at home? The personality insights of household energy conservation behaviors based on theory of planned behavior

Personality traits play an important role in pro-environmental behavioral heterogeneity. This study aims to explore the effects of Big Five personality traits on the energy-saving behavior of residents based on the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). We employ the k-means algorithm to cluster 1119 respondents in Xi'an, China by their personality characteristics into four groups: (1) the positives, (2) the temperates, (3) the conservatives, and (4) the introverts. The research observes significant heterogeneity of energy-saving behavior among the four resident groups. We examine the behavioral pattern of each resident group, and the analysis indicates that TPB attributes bridge personality traits and household energy-saving behaviors. The extended TPB factors explain the best performance on household energy-saving intention and behaviors of the positives. Besides, the results present the different effects of psychological factors on the energy-saving behaviors of different resident groups. The positive and temperate groups’ energy-saving intention is more sensitive to subjective norms, while perceived behavior control plays a more critical role in other groups. This study could broaden the scope of pro-environmental behavior research and advance knowledge by untangling the intertwined relationship between personality traits and household energy-saving behavior. The findings can contribute to occupant typology development, which is important to capture the diverse energy effect of occupant activity in building energy simulation research as well as differential energy-saving intervention setting in residential buildings to achieve sustainable development goals.