The use of apps to promote energy saving: A study of smart meter–related feedback in the Netherlands

Feedback systems with direct feedback have shown to be effective in stimulating households to change their energy consumption levels. This research is one of the first to explore the use of apps to influence household energy use. Compared to dedicated in-home displays, smartphone/tablet apps provide a low-cost and simple design solution for...

Empowering end-users in the energy transition: An exploration of products and services to support changes in household energy management

Current discourse on smart grid deployment expects residential end users to play a more active role as co-providers in the electric power system. Their electricity consumption and production is considered a resource for balancing supply and demand in an electric power system with distributed generation. This means that, in addition to using...

Smart energy households' pilot projects in The Netherlands with a design-driven approach

Residential smart grid projects can be evaluated by a design-driven approach, which focuses on gaining insights for successful product and service development by taking the end-users as a starting point. Because only little experience exists with this design-driven approach, this paper addresses how four pilot projects with smart energy...

Stimulating energy efficiency in households: Comparison of the Livinggreen.eu methods to theory

In the Livinggreen.eu project a range of different methods were used by the involved organisations to inform and engage residents in taking sustainable renovation measures for their home as well as changing their behaviour. This article presents an inventory of the methods that address residential energy use and evaluates how the methods compare...

Engaging households in sustainable renovation: Exploration of a complementary approach

One of the major challenges for sustainable resource use lies in the renovation of the existing building stock. Less than 1% of the total building stock in North-West Europe is renewed each year, which means that most gain has to be achieved by renovation of the existing building stock in combination with changes in behaviour by residents, the...

Livinggreen Labs: A report on the development of a co design-based engagement method

The publication in front of you presents the full results of the six Livinggreen Labs that have been organised during the course of the Livinggreen.eu project. The primary goal of these Labs was to develop and test a methodology to engage stakeholders, including end-users, in sustainable renovation of cultural heritage buildings. This was a part...

Gaming for energy conservation in households

This paper presents a study about a ‘serious game’, “Energy Battle”, as a means to influence energy-related behavior in households. The Energy Battle is designed to engage home occupants in a fun way in energy conservation via a competition with other households. The challenge enabled home occupants to gain insight in their energy consumption...

A social approach to energy metering: The energy mentor

Industrial designers are used to applying their skills to modify or change user’s behaviour, inducing attributes to the product to empower/inhibit the use into a certain direction (e.g. scripts). These approaches might bring the desired results, and modify behaviour to one that favors sustainability. Such approaches, however, have a major defect...