At present, China is paying more and more attention to sustainable development. Saving energy is an important guarantee for sustainable development. At the same time, many studies have found that changing people's energy consumption behaviours can contribute to solving the high energy consumption problem. Thus, this research chooses the urban residents in China as its object, and studies the factors influencing residents’ habitual energy-saving behaviours. We establish a comprehensive theoretical model suitable for this study based on TPB and NAM model. Through on-the-spot investigation, data collection, and model establishment, we find that the daily energy-saving behaviours of urban residents in China are mostly motivated by “altruism”. In addition, the external factors (social norms and policy environment) have a significant impact on residents’ daily energy-saving behaviour. Based on this, we put forward some specific policy suggestions from three aspects: policy effectiveness, information behind the big data and the publicity by the Internet. •Establishing a comprehensive theoretical model based on TPB and NAM model.•Dividing the influencing factors into two types: altruistic and egoistic factors.•It shows that the behaviour of urban residents in China were motivated by altruism.•We found the external factors (social norm and policy environment) are significant.