• Energy Research

Concerns about climate change associated with the combustion of fossil fuels urge a call for widespread reductions in household energy use. Determining means of achieving this is a key challenge faced by environmental scientists. The current research presents insights gained from a 12-month empirical trial of new serious game for energy, ‘EnergyCat’; which was designed to encourage household energy reductions in the UK social housing sector. Effects of gameplay on consumption behaviours and energy awareness were explored using 82 UK social housing households (versus a no-game control). Results indicated the intervention did not lead to any substantive changes in awareness or consumption practices. However, post-intervention feedback highlighted several issues in terms of game design and usability that may explain why the game failed to change behaviour in this instance. We provide a framework of suggestions as to how the game design process could be improved in order to engage residents in future, including use of adaptive fonts for older residents, and provision of clearer instructions on gameplay objectives at the outset. In addition, researchers should ensure close collaboration is maintained with residents throughout the design process in future efforts, in order to maximise likelihood of ongoing engagement from this population.

This paper presents for the first time the results of a life cycle assessment study for an intelligent energy management system. We considered material acquisition, manufacturing, transportation, assembly, operation and maintenance stages. The results show that the assembly phase had an environmental impact of 897 Eco-indicator 99 points that was mainly due to the monitoring subsystem (87.80%). When the analysis was extended to cover the use phase, the environmental impact ranged from 1963 (useful life of 5 years) to 3029 Eco-indicator 99 points (useful life of 10 years). The environmental impact of the use stage was found to represent 54–70% of the total, whereas the assembly stage represented 46–30%. The maintenance phase contributed to a very small extent to the total environmental impact (less than 0.5%). In any case, the impact on resources was the largest (about 51%), whereas the human health damage category amounted to approximately 35% and the ecosystem quality damage category represented about 14% of the total impact. Peer Reviewed

Although energy management systems are expected to result in decreased energy consumption, it is important not to overlook the energy used until commissioning (including raw materials acquisition, manufacturing and transportation) and during the usage phase (including operation and maintenance). This paper examines the energy performance of an intelligent energy management system for underground metro stations. The results show that the energy management system has high energy performance in terms of energy payback time and energy return factor, due to its low cumulative energy demand and its potential for energy savings. When we assumed that the lifespan of energy management systems may vary between 5 and 10 years, their cumulative energy demand was found to range between 505,316 and 852,493 MJp eq. In all cases, the operating energy was found to far outweigh the embodied energy (68-81%). The energy management system was implemented in a pilot underground station and was found to provide an energy saving of 13.2±1.1% of the total energy consumption of the pilot station. The energy payback time of the energy management system for underground stations was found to range between 40 and 55 days. Consequently, the system pays back between 33 and 91 times the energy invested in it. The results of this research provide valuable information for stakeholders in the energy management systems industry, as they contribute to ascertaining the sustainability of products. Peer Reviewed

Exceptional pandemic lockdown measures enabled singular experiments such as analysing the energy consumption of vacant buildings. This paper assesses the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the energy use of academic buildings. For this purpose, weather-adjusted energy use was compared before and during the lockdown, including different levels of lockdown restrictions. Results obtained for the 83 academic buildings of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona Tech (UPC) reveal that the avoided energy consumption amounted to over 4.3 GWh during the post-pandemic year. However, the results indicate that academic buildings were still using approximately 46.9% of their typical energy consumption during strict lockdown. This revelation emphasizes the high environmental burden of buildings, regardless of whether they are occupied.

The application of gamification to encourage energy conservation behaviour in house occupants is an emerging field of research. However, empirical evidence of its effectiveness is lacking. This paper presents lessons learnt from the EU-funded EnerGAware research project, in which an innovative serious game (a game designed for purposes other than purely entertainment) was developed to promote reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions by changing social housing tenants’ energy efficiency behaviour. The game was validated in a sample of European social housing using a longitudinal, two-stage experimental design, employing both pre-post and control group approaches. While some aspects of the game did not work as intended, there were nevertheless some positive impacts. The intervention increased social housing tenants’ awareness and engagement in certain energy saving behaviour and provided an average electricity saving of 3.46% and an average gas saving of 7.48%. Although savings were found not to be statistically significant, an effect size was detected (0.2). Therefore, future steps should exploit all available opportunities to replicate the pilot and increase the sample size so as to gain stronger evidence of the game’s impact. Preliminary results support the utility of gaming investment in the household energy efficiency field, and provide useful insights and pathways that could be incorporated into the development of future serious game interventions to foster their effectiveness. Peer Reviewed

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the EU's total energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions. Although difficult to quantify, individuals' attitudes to energy use significantly impact the energy consumed in households. In this context, serious games provide an opportunity to enhance buildings' energy efficiency through changes in users' behaviour. This chapter presents the results obtained in the EnerGAware-Energy Game for Awareness of energy efficiency in social housing communities project (2015–2018), funded by EU H2020. The project developed a serious game for household energy efficiency called “Energy Cat: The House of Tomorrow.” The game was deployed and tested in a UK social housing pilot for one year. Cost-benefit analysis in the energy, environmental, and economic domains prove that serious gaming is among the most cost-effective energy efficiency strategies for households on the market.