<p>This thesis examines if house-owners are prepared to reduce energy use by means of accessing more information on electricity consumption. The goal has been to examine whether house-owners are interested in details such as knowing what impact various installations and electrical appliances have on the overall consumption, and to present examples of various solutions available for solving this task. The aim has also been to present recommendations on what features such a system should hold, and to suggest how it can be designed.</p><p>An orientation has been made on the electricity metering market for electricity trading, to examine what information is available to households today. Research in the topic of electricity feedback suggests that today's public methods are generally not as effective as other solutions with greater saving potential. The concept of Disaggregated Electricity Feedback (DEF) has been introduced and is intended to give effective feedback, contributing to a better understanding of the household electricity consumption. Study's main goal has been to investigate house owner’s interest in what DEF is aiming to achieve. The results show there is a strong interest for house-owners having access to what DEF is supposed to provide. Another result obtained in this work is that a potential product equipped with the DEF may be of interest to other parties. With technology changes taking place in the electricity market, opportunities are created for electricity companies to offer their customers completely new and customized services, where a DEF-product may have a number of possible uses.</p>

This thesis examines if house-owners are prepared to reduce energy use by means of accessing more information on electricity consumption. The goal has been to examine whether house-owners are interested in details such as knowing what impact various installations and electrical appliances have on the overall consumption, and to present examples of various solutions available for solving this task. The aim has also been to present recommendations on what features such a system should hold, and to suggest how it can be designed. An orientation has been made on the electricity metering market for electricity trading, to examine what information is available to households today. Research in the topic of electricity feedback suggests that today's public methods are generally not as effective as other solutions with greater saving potential. The concept of Disaggregated Electricity Feedback (DEF) has been introduced and is intended to give effective feedback, contributing to a better understanding of the household electricity consumption. Study's main goal has been to investigate house owner’s interest in what DEF is aiming to achieve. The results show there is a strong interest for house-owners having access to what DEF is supposed to provide. Another result obtained in this work is that a potential product equipped with the DEF may be of interest to other parties. With technology changes taking place in the electricity market, opportunities are created for electricity companies to offer their customers completely new and customized services, where a DEF-product may have a number of possible uses.

Buildings account for 40% of energy consumption in the US. Despite all improvements in buildings shell, equipment, and design, CO2 emissions from buildings are increasing as a result of increased energy consumption. Since occupants spend more than 90% of their time indoors, they are inseparable and significant elements of building system dynamics. Hence, there is a great potential for energy efficiency in buildings using a wide range of programs such as education, intervention, energy feedback, etc. Due to advancement of technology and accessibility of high resolution energy consumption data, utility companies are enabled to focus on implementing energy feedback programs to induce energy efficiency and reduce the peak energy load in the commercial and residential sector. In order to better understand various aspects of energy feedback programs, in the first chapter of this dissertation, I conduct a comprehensive literature review on the state-of-the-art energy feedback study methods and identify gaps of knowledge and challenges faced by researchers in the field. Accordingly, the future research vision is laid out at the intersection of methods and gaps of knowledge used in energy feedback studies and future research opportunities and questions are provided. One of the major gaps of knowledge I identified in the literature review is the lack of quantitative analyses used to investigate the variability of occupant responses to commercial buildings energy feedback programs to evaluate the need for targeted and tailored energy feedback programs. In the second chapter, I conducted a comprehensive analysis on occupant energy-use responses under the influence of a uniform energy feedback program. Furthermore, I investigated the effectiveness of notifications on increasing the level of engagement of the occupants in these studies. The results supported the existence of a variability in responses and engagement level in a uniform energy feedback program which may be due to intra-class variability of occupant behavior. In the third chapter, based on the established need for a targeted energy feedback program, I investigate the predictability of occupant energy consumption behavior and its correlation with energy consumption. The results report that 46% of occupants may be good candidates for targeted energy feedback programs due to their combination of higher levels of energy-use and predictability of their energy consumption behavior. / Ph. D.

With public opinion shifting to a believe in climate change in the early 2000s the interest in energy efficiency has been increasing. EU Directives set the goal of deploying smart meters if cost efficient for providing more detailed energy consumption. The main goal is to better inform consumers and to give individual households the power to change possibly energy wasting behaviours. This paper evaluates through a literature review the effectiveness of intelligent electricity metering systems with a focus on the DACH region, the provision of different types of feedback and its persistence. It can be concluded that energy feedback enabled by smart meters can lead to savings in the range of 0% to 4.5% in this region. If feedback is provided continuously savings persist. However, several aspects have to be considered to ensure effectiveness of smart meter deployment.

Smart Grid research is growing around the world due to the need to replace the ageing old electricity grid with an intelligent, reliable electricity network. The smart grid aims at creating a reliable power distribution and efficient power usage in homes. One of the key issues focused in this project is providing real time energy feedback to users, which is minimal or non-existent in the current grid system. This thesis investigates about using smart TVs to provide real time energy feedback in homes. Since its introduction in 2009 smart TVs are growing in popularity in European market. To provide real time energy feedback on smart TVs three features are identified Smart TV application, ambilighting and push notification. The Human-centered design process is used for designing the Smart TV interface system using the identified features. A literature study is conducted to gather the user requirements for the smart TV interface. The information gathered during the study is used for the design and implementation of the interface prototype. As an example platform the Philips smart TV 2013 is chosen to demonstrate the various features that can be used to provide energy feedback. The usability of the Smart TV interface is evaluated with users and the results are recorded. The smart TV application, ambient lighting and push notification system in Smart TVs is demonstrated for providing real-time energy feedback. The interface is evaluated with users and results are discussed. The result suggests that Smart TVs can serve as an informational display in homes. The Smart TV interface should be interlinked with Smart Phone and Tablet applications to be effective, further the users prefer the Smart Phone over the Smart TV application to control the household devices. / The thesis work evaluates the potential of using smart TVs to provide real time energy feedback in homes. The results of the thesis showed that smart phone are the primary interaction medium suitable for home environment while smart TVs can serve as an informative medium to provide ambient feedback in homes. / praveenjelish@ymail.com +46727700788

In order to reach the current climate goals, energy consumption needs to decrease in all sectors, including households, which produce 20% of the European emissions. However, it is difficult to increase residents’ engagement in their household electricity consumption as it is an ‘invisible’ form of energy, the monetary incentives are often too small and environmental incentives are not very effective. Building on the idea that an engagement mechanism should be based on user needs, and recent research showing that social influence can be an effective way to affect consumption behaviour, this thesis examines the potential of a neighbourhood-based digital local social network providing feedback on household electricity consumption as an engagement solution. By helping neighbours to know each other better, such a network could meet the basic human need of belonging to a group, while also taking advantage of the social influence between neighbours to increase the effectiveness of the energy feedback provided. This thesis sought to: 1) Identify needs of residents that could be served by a local social network and explore whether such a network could provide a beneficial context for energy feedback; 2) identify and evaluate a set of design principles for energy feedback and use them to propose a prototype feedback design suitable for use in a local social network; and 3) design and implement a baseline study for measuring changes in aspects of social and environmental sustainability in a neighbourhood that introduction of a local social network can achieve, such as social cohesion, trust, safety, and energy attitudes and behaviour. In order to achieve these objectives, the Research Through Design methodology was used. This resulted in mixed methods research using quantitative (household survey) and qualitative (focus group interviews, stakeholder consultation workshop) methods. The research was conducted in two eco-districts in Stockholm, Sweden: Hammarby Sjöstad and Stockholm Royal Seaport. Regarding the first objective, results from the household survey indicated a need for increased interaction between neighbours in Stockholm Royal Seaport, while the focus group discussions revealed local communication needs that a local social network could meet. However, the possibility to use social influence between neighbours in increasing the intention to save energy was shown to be rather weak, possibly because of the current low level of connection between neighbours. Regarding the second objective, a set of design principles was identified using a literature study. They were used to create a design prototype of energy feedback that was presented to potential end-users in a stakeholder consultation workshop and then refined using suggestions given in the workshop. The workshop indicated support for many of the design principles as they were indirectly mentioned in the discussions. The design principle of fair feedback was further explored, suggesting use of typical household consumption as part of a fair comparison metric and when setting reduction goals. Regarding the third objective, an evaluation method with baseline survey and follow-up surveys was suggested. The household survey served as a baseline for measuring social and environmental sustainability aspects in a neighbourhood. Further research is needed on the effectiveness of a local social network as an engagement mechanism for energy feedback. / För att nå de nuvarande klimatmålen måste energiförbrukningen minska i alla sektorer, även för hushåll som står för 20% av de europeiska utsläppen. Det är dock svårt att öka medborgarnas engagemang kring förbrukningen av hushållsel då el är en "osynlig" energiform, de monetära incitamenten ofta är ofta för små och miljöincitament inte är särskilt effektiva. Baserat på idén att en engagemangsmekanism bör baseras på användarbehov samt ny forskning som visat att socialt inflytande kan vara ett effektivt sätt att påverka konsumtionsbeteendet, undersöker denna avhandling potentialen i ett grannskapsbaserat digitalt lokalt socialt nätverk som tillhandahåller feedback på hushållens elförbrukning som en engagemangslösning. Genom att hjälpa grannar att lära känna varandra bättre kan ett sådant nätverk uppfylla det grundläggande mänskliga behovet av att tillhöra en grupp, samtidigt som det sociala inflytandet mellan grannar kan utnyttjas för att öka effektiviteten hos den tillhandahållna energiåterkopplingen. Denna avhandling hade tre mål: 1) Identifiera behov hos boende som kan tillgodoses av ett lokalt socialt nätverk samt undersöka huruvida ett sådant nätverk skulle kunna tillhandahålla en bra kontext för energiåterkoppling, 2) identifiera och utvärdera en uppsättning designprinciper för energiåterkoppling, och använda principerna för att föreslå en prototypdesign för energiåterkoppling lämplig för användning i ett lokalt socialt nätverk och 3) utforma och genomföraen baseline-studie för att mäta förändringar i aspekter av social och miljömässig hållbarhet i ett grannskap skulle kunna främjas av införandet av ett lokalt socialt nätverk, exempelvis social sammanhållning, tillit, säkerhet samt energiattityder och beteende. För att uppnå dessa mål användes Research Through Design-metodiken, vilket i sin tur resulterade i en s.k. “mixed methods”-forskningsmetodik där både kvantitativa (hushållsundersökning) och kvalitativa (fokusgruppintervjuer, workshop) metoder användes. Forskningen genomfördes i två distrikt med miljöprofil i Stockholm: Hammarby Sjöstad och Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Beträffande det första målet indikerade hushållsundersökningen ett behov av ett ökat samspel mellan grannarna i Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Fokusgruppdiskussionerna avslöjade lokala kommunikationsbehov som ett lokalt socialt nätverk skulle kunna möta. Möjligheten att använda socialt viiinflytande mellan grannar för att öka intentionen att spara energi visade sig dock vara ganska liten, möjligen på grund av den nuvarande låga nivån av sammanhållning mellan grannarna. Beträffande det andra målet identifierades en uppsättning designprinciper med hjälp av en litteraturstudie. Dessa användes för att skapa en designprototyp på energiåterkoppling som presenterades till potentiella slutanvändare under en workshop. Prototypen förbättrades sedan med hjälp av de förslag som gavs i workshopen. Workshopen gav också stöd åt många av designprinciperna som indirekt nämndes under diskussionerna. Designprincipen för rättvis återkoppling undersöktes ytterligare vilket ledde till ett förslag om att använda typisk hushållskonsumtion som en del av en rättvis jämförelseindikator och vid fastställning av energisparmål. Beträffande det tredje målet föreslogs en utvärderingsmetod baserat på en baseline-studie och uppföljande studier. Hushållsundersökningen fungerade som en utgångspunkt för mätning av sociala och miljömässiga hållbarhetsaspekter i ett grannskap. Ytterligare forskning föreslogs för att visa på effektiviteten hos ett lokalt socialt nätverk som en engagemangsmekanism för energiåterkoppling. / <p>QC 20190710</p>