Energy efficient technologies are particularly important for social housing settings: they offer the potential to improve tenants' wellbeing through monetary savings and comfort, while reducing emissions of entire communities. Slow uptake of innovative energy technology in social housing has been associated with a lack of trust and the perceived risks of adoption. To counteract both, we designed a communication campaign for a retrofit technology for heating including social norms for technology adoption and concretely experienced benefits. We report two randomized controlled trials (RCT) in two different social housing communities in Belgium. In the first study, randomization was on housing block level: the communication led to significant higher uptake rates compared to the control group, (b = 1.7, p = .024). In the second study randomization occurred on apartment level, again yielding a significant increase (b = 1.62, p = 0.02), when an interaction with housing blocks was considered. We discuss challenges of conducting randomized controlled trials in social housing communities.

翻译：节能技术在社会住房环境中尤为重要：它们可以通过节省开支和提高舒适度改善租户福祉，同时减少整个社区的排放。社会住房创新节能技术采用率低与缺乏信任和感知采用风险有关。为应对这两个问题，我们针对供暖改造技术设计了一项传播活动，包含技术采用的社会规范和具体体验到的效益。我们报告了在比利时两个不同社会住房社区开展的两项随机对照试验。在第一项研究中，随机化以住宅楼为单位：与对照组相比，传播活动显著提高了采用率（b = 1.7, p = 0.024）。在第二项研究中，随机化以公寓为单位，当考虑与住宅楼的交互作用时，同样产生了显著增长（b = 1.62, p = 0.02）。我们讨论了在社会住房社区开展随机对照试验面临的挑战。