Identifying and Categorizing Opportunities for Design for Sustainable User Behavior

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chathura Withanage ◽  
Rahul Ashok ◽  
Katja Hölttä-Otto ◽  
Kevin Otto
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Energy Awareness ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
World Population ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Household Energy ◽  
Routine Manner ◽  
Sustainable Behavior

The constantly growing world population and depleting natural resources make promoting sustainable behavior of paramount importance. Household energy is a significant percent of global energy consumption. While there has been significant work in improving energy awareness, there remains opportunity in designing systems that help direct users toward more sustainable behavior. This is particularly true since user behavior, as influenced by attitudes, beliefs and preferences, is a main driver of the household energy consumption. In this paper, a method is presented to identify and categorize design for sustainable behavior opportunities as failure modes on unnecessary overconsumption. We do this by comparing actual behavior against the minimum necessary to complete the task. Any deviation from the energy minimum is a failure mode opportunity. We clarify when opportunities are suitable for design for sustainable behavior, and when opportunities require stronger intervention of product or process redesign. To do this, user behavior was analyzed in a living laboratory format. Subjects were asked to perform a simple daily cooking activity in two phases; first in their routine manner and subsequently by trying to reduce energy consumption. In addition to recorded data on energy consumed, the users were interviewed on each user activity to understand which activities people were aware of means to reduce energy and in which they were not. The overall results show that all participants were able to reduce their energy consumption significantly when asked to do so, but these energy reducing behaviors were often ignored and not part of their daily routine. Based on this analysis, we identify opportunities where improving energy awareness is the issue, and other opportunities where more difficult sustainable design of the product or the process is needed since users are already aware but choose not to bother with reducing consumption.

Design for Sustainable Use of Appliances: A Framework Based on User Behavior Observations

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chathura Withanage ◽  
Katja Hölttä-Otto ◽  
Kevin Otto ◽  
Kristin Wood
Keyword(s):  
User Study ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Design Solution ◽  
Energy Awareness ◽  
Smart Energy Systems ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Sustainable Behavior

User behavior can determine over one third of the energy consumed in the residential energy market. Thus, user behavior has become a primary focus in sustainable mechanical device, appliance, and smart-energy systems design. Wasteful user behaviors, termed energy overuse failure modes (EOFMs), offer an opportunity for design engineers to direct users toward more sustainable behavior through design strategies. There are fundamentally two intervention strategies: (1) product or systems solution led or (2) behavioral led. Both are used to achieve increased sustainable user behavior. To ensure expected intervention outcomes, it is equally important to both identify the EOFMs as well as their underlying causes. However, the prevailing sustainable design approaches, such as design for sustainable behavior (DfSB) and ecodesign, depend on stated responses to elicit underlying causes of behavior. Consequently, the outcomes of these approaches are susceptible to response biases. In this paper, a new revealed behavior based framework is introduced to elicit underlying causes of EOFMs and to propose potential intervention strategies to address them. We focus on uncovering two underlying causes that correspond to the intervention strategies: (1) high energy consuming habits and (2) lack of energy awareness. In the proposed framework, user behavior categorization matrices are formulated using a two-phase user study approach with a request to lower the energy use in-between the phases. Based on the observed behavior, each EOFM is matrix categorized on two axes of change and correctness. With this data, the matrices thereby indicate the dominant underlying causes of EOFMs. The EOFMs and proposed interventions can then be prioritized based on the likelihood of occurrence, severity, magnitude or a combinatorial strategy to suit the sustainability objectives. A case study is presented with seven EOFMs that are found in typical day-to-day household electromechanical appliance use including inefficient appliance setup, inefficient selection, inefficient operation, standby energy consumption, and inefficient settings of conditions. Lack of user awareness of energy and power interactions among appliances and household settings is identified as the key underlying cause of considered EOFMs. Potential design solution strategies are also considered to overcome the EOFMs based on likelihoods, severities, and magnitudes, respectively. Each solution strategy carries a varying level of knowledgeable decision-making required of the user, compared with alternatively designing into the product or systems restrictions on use.

Quantifying Energy Consumption in Household Surveys: An Alternative Device-based Accounting Approach

Field Methods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimei Wu ◽  
Xinye Zheng ◽  
Jin Guo ◽  
Chuan-Zhong Li ◽  
Chu Wei
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
Household Surveys ◽  
Household Energy ◽  
Consumption Data ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

The exercise of quantifying the energy consumption data assembled through household surveys, either by the recall-based approach or the meter-based approach, remains a challenging task, especially in rural areas of developing countries. In this article, we propose a device-based bottom-up accounting method for estimating household energy consumption. This method provides microlevel disaggregated estimates at the intensive margin and documents other difficult-to-measure energy consumption such as biomass at the extensive margin. Even though measurement errors of the household survey might still exist, the structured questionnaire of daily routine behavior questions should greatly alleviate the problem. The new method supplements the existing household energy statistical system, improves its flexibility, and is particularly applicable in developing countries and/or rural areas. We apply the method to a Chinese rural household survey and discuss its differences and similarities with the conventional methods.

scholarly journals Why Low-Carbon Publicity Effect Limits? The Role of Heterogeneous Intention in Reducing Household Energy Consumption

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 7634
Author(s):  
Jin Zhang ◽  
Lianrui Ma ◽  
Jinkai Li
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Energy Awareness ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Household Energy ◽  
Consumption Behavior ◽  
Household Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Behavior ◽  
Saving Behavior

Low-carbon knowledge is seen as having a key role in interfering with household energy consumption behaviors by wide consensus from political and academic areas. Whether low-carbon publicity will help to reduce household energy consumption is still in dispute. By constructing an integrated knowledge-intention-behavior model and using 1335 detailed survey questionnaires of household energy behavior in Henan Province, the central area in China, this paper finds that in the developing area low-carbon knowledge or publicity cannot positively impact household energy-saving behavior even if mediated by energy awareness and energy-saving attitudes. Low-carbon knowledge does improve energy-saving attitude and attitude does not decrease household energy consumption directly. Familiarity with particular energy-saving knowledge would decrease the household energy consumption but not significantly in the statistics. Path analysis unfolds the reason that the heterogeneous effects of purchase-based intention and habitual intention explain energy consumption behavior. Subgroup analysis supports those economic factors of income and energy prices play key roles in explaining such household energy consumption behavior in the rapid urbanization area. This paper gives new evidence on the residential energy-saving behavior intervention among developing areas.

scholarly journals The IDEAL household energy dataset, electricity, gas, contextual sensor data and survey data for 255 UK homes

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Pullinger ◽  
Jonathan Kilgour ◽  
Nigel Goddard ◽  
Niklas Berliner ◽  
Lynda Webb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Power Measurement ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Energy Awareness ◽  
Household Energy ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe IDEAL household energy dataset described here comprises electricity, gas and contextual data from 255 UK homes over a 23-month period ending in June 2018, with a mean participation duration of 286 days. Sensors gathered 1-second electricity data, pulse-level gas data, 12-second temperature, humidity and light data for each room, and 12-second temperature data from boiler pipes for central heating and hot water. 39 homes also included plug-level monitoring of selected electrical appliances, real-power measurement of mains electricity and key sub-circuits, and more detailed temperature monitoring of gas- and heat-using equipment, including radiators and taps. Survey data included occupant demographics, values, attitudes and self-reported energy awareness, household income, energy tariffs, and building, room and appliance characteristics. Linked secondary data comprises weather and level of urbanisation. The data is provided in comma-separated format with a custom-built API to facilitate usage, and has been cleaned and documented. The data has a wide range of applications, including investigating energy demand patterns and drivers, modelling building performance, and undertaking Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring research.

Rural household energy consumption and its implications for eco-environments in NW China: A case study

2014 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 137-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hewen Niu ◽  
Yuanqing He ◽  
Umberto Desideri ◽  
Peidong Zhang ◽  
Hongyi Qin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Rural Household ◽  
Household Energy ◽  
Nw China ◽  
Household Energy Consumption

scholarly journals Issues Surrounding Behavior towards Discarded Textiles and Garments in Ljubljana

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6491
Author(s):  
Katarina Polajnar Horvat ◽  
Katarina Šrimpf Vendramin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Awareness ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Fast Fashion ◽  
Textile Waste ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sustainable Behavior

In recent years, post-consumer textile waste has become an important issue that attracts attention from activists, scientists and the media. The production and use of clothing has more than doubled in the last fifteen years due to declining costs, streamlined operations and rising consumption under the influence of fast fashion. According to research, the average European buys as much as 26 kg of textiles each year and discards 11 kg, while a very small share of post-consumer textile waste is recycled. This article presents the findings of a study on household textile waste in the capital of Ljubljana. The research showed that despite the significant declarative environmental awareness of people for sustainable behavior in the field of textile waste, the share of those decreases with exposure to actual behavior. However, there are few people who are completely uninterested in reducing textile waste, as most people are aware of the problem and pay more and more attention to it. The authors study the management of textile waste and its creation by the inhabitants of Ljubljana in the broader context of the influences of fast fashion, as well as the cultural specifics of the Slovenian society.

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