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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number	EP/K002589/1
Title	Creating the Energy for Change
Status	Completed
Energy Categories	Energy Efficiency(Residential and commercial) 100%;
Research Types	Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields	SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology) 20%; SOCIAL SCIENCES (Psychology) 10%; PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics) 50%; ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment) 20%;
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation	Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour) 75%; Other (Energy technology information dissemination) 25%;
Principal Investigator	Dr A (Alexa ) Spence No email address given Psychology University of Nottingham
Award Type	Standard
Funding Source	EPSRC
Start Date	01 September 2012
End Date	31 August 2017
Duration	60 months
Total Grant Value	£1,075,109
Industrial Sectors	Energy
Region	East Midlands
Programme	Digital Economy : Digital Economy, Energy : Energy
Investigators	Principal Investigator	Dr A (Alexa ) Spence , Psychology, University of Nottingham (99.996%)
	Other Investigator	Dr E Costanza , Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (0.001%) Professor D McAuley , Computer Science, University of Nottingham (0.001%) Professor T Rodden , Computer Science, University of Nottingham (0.001%) Professor E Ferguson , Psychology, University of Nottingham (0.001%)
	Industrial Collaborator	Project Contact , University of Cambridge (0.000%) Project Contact , University of Nottingham (0.000%) Project Contact , Ove Arup & Partners Ltd (0.000%) Project Contact , CSE (0.000%) Project Contact , Wilson Energy (0.000%) Project Contact , Antenna (0.000%) Project Contact , HORIZON Digital Economy Research (0.000%) Project Contact , Department of Energy & Climate Change (0.000%) Project Contact , ZED Factory Ltd (0.000%) Project Contact , eSight Energy Ltd (0.000%) Project Contact , Unify, USA (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract	This project will investigate innovative ways of dividing up and representing energy use in shared buildings so as to motivate occupants to save energy. Smart meters (energy monitors that feed information back to suppliers) are currently being introduced in Britain and around the world; the government aims to have one in every home and business in Britain by 2019. One reason for this is to provide people with better information about their energy use to help them to save energy. Providing energy feedback can be problematic in shared buildings, and here we focus on workplaces, where many different people interact and share utilities and equipment within that building. It is often difficult to highlight who is responsible for energy used and difficult therefore to divide up related costs and motivate changes in energy usage. We propose to focus on these challenges and consider the opportunities that exist in engaging whole communities of people in reducing energy use.This project is multidisciplinary, drawing primarily on computer science skills of joining up data from different sources and in examining user interactions with technology, design skills of developing innovative and fun ways of representing data, and social science skills (sociology and psychology) in ensuring that displays are engaging, can motivate particular actions, and fit appropriately within the building environment and constraints. We will use a variety of methods making use of field deployments, user studies, ethnography, and small-scale surveys so as to evaluate ideas at every step.We have divided the project into three key work packages: 'Taking Ownership' which will focus on responsibility for energy usage, 'Putting it Together' where we will put energy usage in context, and 'People Power' where we will focus on creating collective behaviour change. In more detail, 'Taking Ownership' will explore how to identify who is using energy within a building, how best to assign responsibility and how to feed that back to the occupants. We know that simplicity of design is key here, as well as issues of fairness and ethics, and indeed privacy (might people be able to monitor your coffee drinking habits from this data?). 'Putting it Together' will consider different ways of combining energy data, e.g. joining this up across user groups or spaces, and combining energy data with other commonly available information, e.g. weather or diary data, so as to put it in context. We will also spend time considering the particular building context, the routines that currently exist for occupants, and the motivations that people have for using and saving energy within the building, in understanding how best to present energy information to the occupants.Our third theme, 'People Power' will focus on changing building user's behaviour collectively. We will examine how people interact around different energy goals, considering in particular cooperation and regulation, in finding out what works best in different contexts. The project then brings all aspects of research together in the use of themed challenge days where we promote specific energy actions for everyone in a building (e.g. switching off equipment after use) and demonstrate the impact that collective behaviour change can have. Beyond simply observing what works in this context through objective measures of energy usage, we will analyse when and where behaviour changes occurred and speak to the users themselves to find out what was engaging. These activities will combine to inform technical, design and policy recommendations for energy monitoring in workplaces as well as conclusions for other multi-occupancy buildings. Moreover, we will develop a tool kit to pass on to other companies and buildings so that others can use the findings and experience gained here. We will also explore theoretical implications of our results and communicate our academic findings to the range of disciplines involve
Publications	(none)
Final Report	(none)
Added to Database	30/04/12