• Energy Research

Digital Twin (DT) consists of a recent technology that can enable sustainability. However, Digital Twins are still in early stages of adoption, especially in households, and so the determinants to this adoption have not yet been determined. The aim of this study is to fill this research gap through providing a conceptual model of the drivers to the adoption of Digital Twins in households and it's relation to well-being. This study is developed as a mixed-methods research. The model is produced qualitatively, based on literature discoveries and key findings from interviews with experts and possible consumers. Afterwards, the model was validated with data collected through a questionnaire with 149 respondents. Results show that a set of informational, social, environmental and utility factors can influence the intention to adopt Digital Twins as a sustainable energy solution, and consequently the perceived well-being.

Abstract Residential buildings are significant contributors to global energy consumption. Hence, numerous articles have studied occupants’ energy behaviors to promote households’ change toward energy efficiency. However, the drivers of these behaviors, analyzed in a unified view of several perspectives, have not been fully explored in the literature. Moreover, the intention to adopt an energy-efficient heating appliance (EEHA) has never been investigated in order to understand what drives people to change their current appliances. To fill this gap, our work gathers six relevant contexts (triggers, barriers, engagement, house characteristics, co-benefits, and communication channels) to predict behavior change (both attitude on heating equipment use and intention to change to an EEHA). We tested our model based on a sample of 1611 observations collected in five European countries, using structural equation modeling. Our work reveals the significance of energy efficiency and labeling as motivations, and operation and maintenance as barriers. Co-benefits and communication channels also greatly affect consumer behavior intention, namely organizational and web media channels. Our results also emphasize the importance of consumer engagement in the topic of energy, being the strongest effect on behavior intention. These findings have practical implications for both energy and governmental organizations to increase households’ energy efficiency.