From awareness to energy saving: Using user engagement to change occupants' behaviour

Abstract

Scientific literature in the last years provided clear evidences of the determining role occupants play in achieving the highest standards in energy saving and how bad management of HVAC systems, hot water, openings, and electric equipment, may result in increased consumptions, energy waste, and lack of comfort. Based on such assumptions, a campaign to promote occupants' awareness about energetic implications of many daily actions has been launched at the beginning of 2018, by means of a smartphone app. Meanwhile, a selection of the most active users has been given a control unit capable of monitoring occupants' movements, electric energy consumptions, indoor temperature and relative humidity, illuminance and carbon dioxide concentration. Such parameters can be accessed by means of another app, allowing the users to immediately see the effect of their actions in terms of energy savings and indoor environment quality. In addition, it is possible to monitor occupants' habits, set (and send) specific alerts, and verify whether the suggestions given by the app actually induced relevant changes in users' behaviour. The paper presents and discusses a preliminary set of the collected data and provides evidences of the positive feedback induced by the combined use of both apps and the control unit.