Recent news reports that consumers are stocking up on incandescent light bulbs in outrage at their ban, highlight the importance of getting the public on board with energy saving measures and technologies.In response to this, the NHBC Foundation is unveiling its latest report which analyses research into how occupants behave and interact with their homes.
Many organisations are encouraging people to become more aware of the amount of energy they use in the home and there are a growing number of products available to help people reduce their energy consumption.
However, installing these products does not automatically mean a drop in energy usage, or a more sustainable way of life. To be effective, some technologies require a change in behaviour by the user, while others will have a knock-on impact on energy usage in other parts of the home.
It is these kinds of behavioural changes that the home building industry needs to understand if the end product – be that a home, an energy monitor, or an energy saving light bulb – is to have an impact on energy efficiency.
The Foundation’s report into how occupants behave and interact with their homes identifies areas in which further research would be beneficial to the future of energy efficient housing and living. It recommends that more insight is needed in particular into:
• how home owners or occupants should interact with energy efficient technology in the home, and how that information should be communicated
• what kinds of user interface, technology controls and iconography would better help consumers use equipment to full effect
• how long it takes users to change their behaviour – for example, people can learn quickly to turn off lights when a room is unoccupied, but may take longer to change laundry habits, which are embedded in the UK psyche.
The report concludes that, although there may be an improvement in energy efficiency in homes built to the most recent, and even future, building Standards, the full benefit of these changes will only be realised if people living in them are willing and able to change their current behaviour. But they will not do that without help and support and it is here where the housing industry, along with others, has a vital role to play.
The NHBC Foundation is currently researching this topic further and will publish a report into consumer attitudes towards energy efficiency in the New Year. This report will revisit the topics originally published in 2008, Zero carbon: what does it mean to homeowners and housebuilders?, indicating attitude changes and trends over the past three years.
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My experience of how users respond to 75% energy-saving lighting in my newbuild apartments:
ReplyDelete1. Two- and four-pin bulbs are expensive, hard to find, and never last the 12 years advertised: they get broken, they stop working for no apparent reason - after six months of ownership each flat has on average lost 1 2-pin bulb and 2 halogens.
2. Users hate the continuing flicker and slow start-up, and comment on the different quality of whiteness between, say, downlighters and 2-pin units.
3. Users dislike the bulky pendant sockets and the lack of choice with low-energy decorative fittings - popular suppliers like Franklite and Endon, for example, have almost none - almost all their designs are pitched at the replacement market. I already have one buyer replacing her low-energy pendant with a high-energy decorative fixture that is more to her liking.