P r o m o t i n g E n e r g y C o n s c i o u s B e h a v i o u r
167
PROMOTING ENERGY CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR OF
OCCUPANTS THROUGH MONITORING ENERGY USAGE
PATTERNS
Liangxiu Han
1
, Hasim Altan
2
and Masa Noguchi
2
1
School of Comp., Math. & Dig. Tech., Manchester Metropolitan University
2
School of Architecture, The University of Sheffield
,
3
Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of Art
,
Abstract
Energy usage of households accounts for a significant portion of total energy
consumption and CO
2
emissions. It is therefore a critical task to efficiently manage and
minimise energy usage in housing in order to meet carbon dioxide (CO
2
) emission
reduction and energy consumption cut targets.
The minimisation of energy consumption in households has been achieved through
promoting the delivery of low-energy housing, the operation of energy efficient domestic
equipment and the practice of occupants’ energy conscious behaviours. However, the
main challenge remains on how occupants manage the energy in homes and how
occupant behaviours influence energy consumption in domestic environments. This
paper focuses on investigating the relationship between human behaviour and energy
consumption through analysing the energy usage collected from selected Scottishhomes
equipped with a gas-electricity-water usage monitor and indoor temperature, relative
humidity, and CO
2
sensors. The study encompasses the analyses at different time
granularities such as hourly, daily energy usage patterns. It is confirmed that domestic
energy consumption is affected by the occupants’ presences and behaviours.
Keywords: e
nergy efficiency in housing, user behaviour, energy usage pattern
monitoring, home energy data analysis
Introduction
Energy usage of households accounts for a significant portion of total energy
consumption and CO2 emissions. It is therefore a critical task to efficiently manage and
minimise energy usage in housing in order to meet carbon dioxide (CO2) emission
reduction and energy consumption cut targets (e.g. a 20% overall cut in the emissions by
2020 for the EU, compared with 1990 levels).
Various factors play a part in energy consumption in households, for example, home
characteristics, components and equipments installed in homes (e.g. devices for heating,
cooling, cleaning and lighting) to maintain the comfort of homes, occupants’ behaviour
(e.g. their consciousness for energy use and occupants’ activities in the home), home
context (e.g., space, environment, location, time), etc. Among these factors, occupant
presence and behaviour have a large impact on space heating, ventilation, energy
consumption of lighting and space appliances (Page et al. 2008). An occupant present in
a room generates pollutants like CO2, odour, heat, which can directly change the indoor
environment. Because of this change, the occupant may interact with the home
environment to maintain the comfort level, for example, s/he may open the window or
turn on a ventilator. This, in turn, can change the energy consumption in the home.
This paper focuses on investigating the relationship between human behaviour and
energy consumption through analysing the energy usage from selected Scottishhomes
equipped with a gas-electricity-water usage monitor and indoor temperature, relative
humidity, and CO2 sensors. The rest of the paper encompasses: an overview of the
related work; the background and energy usage pattern analysis of a real household;
and conclusions that highlight the future plan.
