This thesis focus on the free rider problem, well known in the field of economics. It is an unwanted situation that gives rise to unnecessary deadweight costs. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the free rider problem that occur when rent include housing utilities and especially when electricity is billed collectively. A Difference-in-Differences design has been applied on two different sets of panel data covering tenants electricity consumption. The results show that tenants use 21.3 percent more electricity when not paying directly for their own electricity consumption. This thesis also shed some light on different components of this problem. The findings in this thesis contributes to the limited research in this field with new empirical evidence.

Modern civilization has developed principally through man's harnessing of forces. For centuries man had to rely on wind, water and animal force as principal sources of power. The advent of the industrial revolution, electrification and the development of new technologies led to the application of wood, coal, gas, petroleum, and uranium to fuel new industries, produce goods and means of transportation, and generate the electrical energy which has become such an integral part of our lives. The geometric growth in energy consumption, coupled with the world's unrestricted growth in population, has caused a disproportionate use of these limited natural resources. The resulting energy predicament could have serious consequences within the next half century unless we commit ourselves to the philosophy of effective energy conservation and management. National legislation, along with the initiative of private industry and growing interest in the private sector has played a major role in stimulating the adoption of energy-conserving laws, technologies, measures, and practices. It is a matter of serious concern in the United States, where ninety-five percent of the commercial and industrial facilities which will be standing in the year 2000 - many in need of retrofit - are currently in place. To conserve energy, it is crucial to first understand how a facility consumes energy, how its users' needs are met, and how all internal and external elements interrelate. To this purpose, the major thrust of this report will be to emphasize the need to develop an energy conservation plan that incorporates energy auditing and surveying techniques. Numerous energy-saving measures and practices will be presented ranging from simple no-cost opportunities to capital intensive investments.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / In January 2008, South Africa experienced a power crisis which changed how South Africa viewed its primary energy sector. South Africa largely depends on coal to generate 77% of the country’s energy needs. Eskom is the main electricity producer and the largest in Africa. Coal is the third largest exporter earner after gold and platinum and the second largest contributor to the South African export market after platinum (Falcon and Prevost, 2012). This highlights the importance of coal to the South African energy sector and economy. According to Geologist Chris Hartnady, the estimated coal production peak is in 2020, a period where most Eskom power station and mines would reach their lifespan (Davie, 2010). There are increased concerns about the quality of coal supplied to Eskom and the preference of coal producers to export coal to international markets. This could possibly compromise the supply of domestic coal. Historically, Eskom was supplied with lower grade coal and higher grade coal was exported. The increased demand for lower quality coal in the Asian markets has been an aggravating factor for the South African government to secure the security of coal supply to Eskom (Sapa, 2012). In March 2013, the South African government declared coal a strategic resource. This implies that the State has the right to regulate and restrict the export of coal to international markets. The available research conducted, by consulting economic firms such as the mineral advisory firm XMP consultants; suggest that the declaration of coal as a strategic resource will impact negatively on the South African economy in some ways and also influence investment attraction into the country (Booyens, 2013). This research seeks to analyse the consequences of declaring coal a strategic resource in South Africa. The enormities in the research subject title, “An analysis of the consequences of declaring coal a strategic resource in South Africa”, makes it extremely difficult to cover all aspects involved in a minor dissertation and to substantially quantify the results in monetary terms due to the facet of dynamic factors involved...

M.Phil. (Energy Studies) / In recent years, the costs of electricity in South Africa have increased enormously, thus, most institutions of higher education are seeking ways to manage their utility costs by reducing consumption rates. Hampering their initiatives, however, is the fact that South Africa in general, and buildings in particular, lag the world in knowledge and implementation of demand side management strategies. This case study outlines the efforts of a large metropolitan university in Gauteng to examine the implementation of energy efficiency within the context of the green or sustainable campus movement. The study comprises three core parts: analysis of electricity consumption data; identification of institutional barriers inhibiting implementation of energy efficiency projects, and, lastly establishing key role players responsible for effective implementation. The study found that seasonality and the campus academic calendar both have profound effects on energy consumption. High demand coincides with winter and a distinct correlation was found between peak consumption and core working hours. Consumption peaked at an average of 2 500 kWh during active ‘in-session’ periods. Less active, ‘out-of-session periods’ recorded an average peak of 2 250 kWh. The lowest average peak consumption of 2 100 kWh occurred during ‘recess’ periods. Similar patterns were evident for the maximum demand. It was evident that the university had a high base load (between 1 300 kWh and 1 650 kWh). This high base load could be attributed mainly to the heating and cooling system. To stimulate decision making towards improved options, an energy savings financial model was developed to provide a tool for calculating the return on investment period for energy efficiency projects. Interviews conducted with key role players (in the university’s operations, academic and management divisions) and a staff questionnaire were used to establish the main barriers to energy efficiency implementation: a) the absence of an energy policy; b) a general low level of awareness of institutional energy efficiency activities and (c) the shortage of dedicated, skilled staff to implement energy efficiency projects. The managerial, operational, and financial divisions are arguably the key role players in energy efficiency projects. Lastly, leadership commitment from the highest levels of the university is required. The novel contribution of this thesis is through combining technological and behavioural approaches to energy efficiency at a tertiary institution through a mixed method study design. Key recommendations are presented to stimulate energy efficiency implementation.

As the rest of the world under development catches up economically with the developed nations, adoption of western tastes is projected to lead to enormous increases in energy use. Specifically, air conditioning use within countries with low saturation rates and high cooling degree rates (India and China) have a potential demand of up to 5 times that of the U.S. market. This growth in HVAC (Heating Ventilation&Air Conditioning) means billions of tons of increased carbon dioxide emissions and trillions of dollars in investment in electricity generation and transmission infrastructure.If there is adoption of Earth sheltering and integration design within these geographical areas, then it might be possible to mitigate the need for such high increase in electricity demand.Ultimately, an estimate of how much quantifiable impact wide adoption of earth integration can have in the regions in question needs to be calculated and compared to projected energy demand if things continue as they are. To do so, parameters need to be determined to see how much of the future air conditioning demand can be met through thermal mass/earth integration. That is, how much future energy demand can be avoided through earth sheltering? To do so:1-Determine what areas account for the greatest projected demand in future air conditioning use.2-See how much of the projected demand can be met through Thermal Mass and Earth Integration (T.M./E.I.) within these areas.3-A design/energy modeling exercise showing proper use and implementation of Earth sheltering within our local climate will be carried out to prove effectiveness of varied strategic thermal mass applications.4-Compare the relative savings of different levels of Earth Integration to arrive at an average overall savings if universal adoption takes place.Top-down approach to energy savings (HVAC efficiency) is not enough to offset projected adoption and its impact on the local and global environments. Energy efficient design is necessary to deal with as much of the increase in projected demand as possible. The use of earth as a building material can be a powerful tool in the fight against increasing energy demands and accompanied destructive environmental effects and needs greater consideration and adoption.

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As the largest consumer of electricity, the buildings sector accounts for about 76% of electricity use and 40% of all U.S. primary energy use and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Research shows that a potential energy saving of 34.78% could be achieved by the smart buildings comparing to conventional buildings. Therefore, a smart management of building sectors becomes significantly important to achieve the optimal interior comfort with minimal energy expenditure. The ability of adaptation to the dynamic environments is considered the central aspect in smart building systems, which can be segmented into the passive adaptation and the active adaptation. The passive adaptation refers to the designs that do not change with the dynamic environment but improve the building overall performance by the integration of originally separated components, or by the application of advanced engineering materials. The active adaptation refers to the building management system (BMS) that actively responds and evolves with the changing environment, through the continuous monitoring of the surroundings via the sensor network, and the smart response through the controlling algorithms in the central controlling unit. This Ph.D. dissertation focuses on developing materials and systems for the smart building envelope, including a photovoltaic integrated roof with passive adaptation, and self-powered window systems with active responses environment. As the skin of a building, the building envelope provides the first level resistance towards air, water, heat, light and noise, which makes it the ideal target for the passive adaptation to the environments, as well as the perfect sensing location in the building management system for the active adaptation. This dissertation starts with a discussion of the building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BIPVT) roofing panel, including the fabrication, performance demonstration, and micromechanics-based theoretical modeling. The panel is structurally supported by a functionally graded material (FGM) panel made with high-density polyethylene as the matrix and aluminum particles as reinforcement. It prevents the heat from entering the building and directs the heat to the water tubes embedded inside the panel for the thermal energy harvesting, such that the overall energy efficiency is significantly improved. The design, fabrication and performance of the system is discussed, and an innovative non-destructive analysis method is developed to captures the authentic particle distribution of the FGM. As the main structural component, functionally graded material is comprehensively tested and modeled in elastic, thermoelastic, elastoplastic, and thermo-elastoplastic performance, based on the equivalent inclusion based method. An ensemble average approach was used to convert the particles’ interaction in the microscope to the averaged relation in the macroscope, such that both particle to matrix influence and particle to particle pair-wise interactions are characterized. The idea of the equivalent inclusion method extends to the plastic modeling of the FGM, by formulating an ensemble average form of the matrix stress norm in the macroscale that incorporate the local disturbance of particle reinforcement in the microscale. The accuracy of the proposed algorithm is verified and validated by comparing with another theory in homogeneous composite and experiments, respectively. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no prior theoretical algorithm has been proposed for the elastoplastic modeling of functionally graded materials. Therefore, the proposed algorithm can be used as a foundation and reference for further investigation and industry prediction of graded composites. Based on the theoretical modeling of the mechanical properties, a high order plate theory is also proposed in this dissertation to study for the thermo-mechanical performance of the FGM panel, to provide structural design guideline for the BIPVT panels. The shearing and bending behaviors are decomposed, solved independently, and combined to formulate the final solution. The shear strain components are assumed to follow a parabolic variation across the thickness, while the bending components follow the solution from classical plate theory. Closed-form solutions for the circular panel under different loadings are provided, with verification by comparing to other models and validation to experiments. Two smart window systems are proposed and demonstrated in this dissertation to actively monitor the building environment with active responses, and energy harvesting techniques are investigated to harvest energy from ambient environment the eternal power supply to the system. The thermoelectric powered wireless sensor network (TPWSN) platform is first demonstrated and discussed, where the energy is harvested from the temperature difference across the window frame. The TPWSN sits completely inside the window/façade frame with no compromise of the outlook and continuously monitors the building environment for the optimal control of the building energy consumption and indoor comfort. The energy harvesting technique grants eternal battery lifetime and significantly simplifies the installation and maintenance of the system with considerable saving of time and cost. In addition, the platform provides energy to various types of sensors for different kinds of sensing needs and store the data to the Google cloud for permanent storage and advanced analytics. The thermoelectric powered system works well for the sensors and microcontrollers but fails to provide enough power to the actuators. A novel sun-powered smart window blinds (SPSWB) system is designed, prototyped, and tested in this dissertation with solar energy harvesting on window blinds which provides enough power for the actuators. The thin-film photovoltaic cells are attached on one side of slats for energy harvesting and a PVdF-HFP coating is attached on the other side for the passive cooling. The voltage regulation and battery management systems are designed and tested, where a stable 55% energy efficiency from the PV into the battery has been achieved. The automatic control of the window blinds is accomplished with the help of sensors and a microcontroller. The energy equilibrium analysis is proposed and demonstrated with the local solar data to incorporate the influence of local weather conditions and solar zenith angle, from which we demonstrated that much more power than needed can be harvested. The abundant energy harvested validates the feasibility and the robustness of the system and proves its wide application potentials to various sensors and applications. In conclusion, both passive and active adaptations to the environment are investigated to build up the next generation of smart building envelope systems. The building integrated photovoltaic thermal roof is designed, fabricated, tested, and modeled in detail, which provides structural support to the external loads and improves the energy efficiency of buildings. The smart window/façade systems serve as a platform for various sensors and actuators via the energy harvesting from the ambient environment, and could significantly improve the energy expenditure with minimal impact of internal comfort.

Reducing energy use is a critical near-term strategy to mitigate climate change. Energy savings behaviors provide multiple benefits to the consumer and to society in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: financial savings from lower energy bills, improved home comfort, fossil fuel resource conservation, energy independence, and improved local and indoor air quality, among others. Yet many policies to encourage reductions in energy use continue to focus on motivating behavior change with financial benefits, and little behavioral research has explored how these multiple benefits influence energy use decisions. Given the continued need for decreased energy use, more research is needed on how to leverage both financial and nonfinancial motivations to encourage energy saving behaviors. This dissertation consists of three separate papers, each addressing different elements of how individuals integrate financial and nonfinancial benefits to make energy use decisions. It presents the results of eight online and field studies conducted with over 395,000 U.S. residents. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the decision architecture of the presentation of multiple benefits. Chapter 1 develops an inconspicuous change in savings metric to gently nudge individuals to consider energy use in addition to financial savings. It shows that presenting energy savings as a percentage of end-use energy increases behavioral adoption compared to a standard presentation of dollars saved. Chapter 2 explicitly presents environmental benefits in different ways, examining whether message effectiveness differs according to participants’ political ideologies. It shows that presenting environmental benefits in addition to financial benefits can increase interest in a large energy efficiency investment. Furthermore, while environmental benefits framed as climate change are motivating only for liberals, environmental benefits framed as stewardship and energy independence are motivating for both liberals and conservatives. Chapter 3 develops a measurement scale for a potential mechanism explaining why environmental and financial benefit frames lead to different decision outcomes: decision modes, or the qualitatively different ways that people make decisions. It defines six decision modes: calculation, affect, social norms, identity, habitual, and moral. These papers contribute to the behavioral science literature, expanding our understanding of the ways that decision makers incorporate the financial and environmental benefits of energy saving behaviors when making energy savings choices. These papers also provide actionable insights for policy makers to decrease energy consumption by improving the presentation of energy saving decisions.

A technique is presented for estimating hourly and seasonal energy consumption profiles in the building sector at spatial scales down to the individual taxlot or parcel. The method combines annual building energy simulations for cityspecific prototypical buildings and commonly available geospatial data in a Geographical Information System (GIS) framework. Hourly results can be extracted for any day and exported as a raster output at spatial scales as fine as an individual parcel (

Museums, art galleries, and historical sites house items of important cultural value. They must provide sufficient lighting to allow for the public viewing of these items, but are also responsible for conservation of them, which requires strict control of the light levels on delicate materials. Windows provide many benefits to building occupants, but for light control, museums restrict the use of daylight. Electrochromic (EC) glazing changes opacity based on electrical charge, so it is possible to vary the amount of daylight admitted through windows. EC glazing can be integrated with museum lighting through a building management system, which can modulate light levels based on a variety of inputs. The Renwick Gallery is used as a case study for the potential application of EC glazing in a museum space. Because of other requirements for the management of environmental conditions, the use of EC glazing will not show a significant reduction in energy consumption. However, the benefits of access to windows, daylight, and views justify its use. EC technology is advancing rapidly. Due to its current limitations and the logistics of application into a historic structure, the Renwick Gallery may best be served by future advancements.