• Energy Research

Technological innovations seem to be among the great promises for achieving the urgent modernisation of economies towards carbon-neutrality. Ranging from fusion energy, bio-based fuels, carbon capture and storage to PV panels and so-called smart energy systems, plenty of technologies promise to reduce use or greenhouse gas emissions of carbon based energy sources. This techno-centric view disregards to a great extent that technological change affects and is affected by societal practices and norms. The present paper argues that contemporary methodological approaches informed by complex systems and social practices theories provide urgently needed insights into innovation for decarbonisation. It specifically addresses the following questions: Why are current conceptualisations of innovation narrowly framed and with what consequences? How would a framing of innovation grounded on complex systems and social practice theories improve the understanding of opportunities and challenges at stake with innovation for decarbonisation? How could this framing help uncover and deploy an important and still often neglected social innovation potential? In a nutshell, the authors advocate for research and policy agendas that are firmly grounded in social practices and take complex and dynamic interactions of energy supply and demand as departing point to seriously reflect about the transitions that are put before us.

This article assesses the importance of the residential miscellaneous electricity end use. Miscellaneous electricity is one of the largest and fastest growing residential end uses. Consumer electronics and halogen torchiere lamps are primary catalysts of end use growth. Approximately half of all consumer electronics energy is consumed while in standby mode. Policy actions aimed at reducing miscellaneous electricity use include reducing standby losses, replacing halogen torchiere models with an efficient CFL model, and improving the efficiency of fans for fuel-fired furnaces.

Abstract Much of the people-centered attention in current work on building energy use focuses on changing the behavior of individuals around a fixed set of things and energy services. This work envisions policy interventions for reducing energy use that rest on motivating people to act on potential monetary savings or to prioritize contributing to the global good. These perspectives largely omit consideration of higher scale and more intricate social contexts, professional cultures, and expectations that shape the activities, habits, and practices behind energy use. Below we discuss a notion of “social potential” that affords a broader possible contribution of social sciences to improved understanding of building energy use and how policies might reshape this use. We begin with an overview of the basic genres of research on people and building energy use and outlines three common missed understandings evident in the energy efficiency industry's attention to people: (1) “If only they knew”; (2) “If only they could be made to care”; and (3) “If only they stayed home.” Beyond individuals, communities, and organizations, we suggest social potential as a formulation that complements and transcends the technical and behavioral savings potential concepts underpinning much of today's building energy efficiency policies, programs, and research.

End-use metered data collected for five years from 350 California residences are used to compare three types of models for allocating estimates of annual residential central air conditioning energy use to hours of the year. We assess how well the model fits the data for daily energy, peak demand, and demand coincident with system peak. A model which couples regression-based functions for daily load estimation with hourly estimation according to a library of load profiles is judged to have a slightly better fit to the data than a model that estimates hourly loads directly from hourly functions derived from linear regressions. Concerns regarding the applicability of end-use metered data for long-term resource planning are described.

Abstract Energy and climate change research has been dominated by particular methods and approaches to defining and addressing problems, accomplished by gathering and analysing the corresponding forms of evidence. This special issue starts from the broad concepts of stories, narratives, and storytelling to go beyond these analytic conventions, approaching the intersection of nature, humanity, and technology in multiple ways, using lenses from social sciences, humanities, and practitioners’ perspectives. The contributors use stories as data objects to gather, analyse, and critique; stories as an approach to research an inquiry; narrative analysis as a way of crystallising arguments and assumptions; and storytelling as a way of understanding, communicating, and influencing others. In using these forms of evidence and communication, and applying methods, analytical stances, and interpretations that these invite, something new and different results. This essay is a brief introduction to how, in our view, stories and their kin fit in energy and climate change research. We outline the diversity of data, approaches, and goals represented in the contributions to the special issue. And we reflect on some of the challenges of, and possibilities for, continuing to develop ‘stories’ as data sources, as modes of inquiry, and as creative paths toward social engagement.

The operation of a building connects the building, its performance and its end-users. When a mismatch occurs between users' expectations and operations processes, then complaints can arise. The use of enhanced complaint handling processes is investigated to ascertain whether this can help diagnose performance problems. Two LEED Platinum-rated office buildings form the basis for a case study of the components that make up an enhanced complaint handling process. Some of the social dynamics of complaints in buildings are consequently discussed. It is found that an enhanced complaint handling approach could contribute to a form of ongoing commissioning that goes beyond primarily reactive or dismissive treatments of complaints. Le fonctionnement d'un immeuble etablit des rapports entre l'immeuble, ses performances et ses utilisateurs finaux. Lorsqu'un decalage se produit entre les attentes des utilisateurs et les processus d'exploitation, des plaintes peuvent alors s'elever. L'utilisation de processus ameliore...

This study describes a pilot effort to measure load reductions from a residential electric water heater (EWH) load control program using low-cost statistically based measurement and verification (M&V) approaches. This field experiment is described within the larger framework of overcoming barriers to participation of noninterval metered customers in Demand Response (DR) Programs. We worked with PJM Interconnection and a Curtailment Service Provider (CSP) to collect hourly load data for two substations and several hundred households over six weeks of load control testing. The experimental design reflected constraints imposed by limited funding, manpower, equipment, and the routine operation of the load control system by the CSP. We analyzed substation- and premise-level data from these tests in an attempt to verify several "point estimates" taken from the hourly diversified demand curves used by the CSP to establish aggregate load reductions from their control program. Analysis of premise-level data allowed for provisional verification that the actual electric water heater load control impacts were within a -60 to +10% band of the estimated values. For sub-station level data, measured values of per-unit load impacts were generally lower than the CSP estimated values for Electric Cooperative #2, after accounting for confounding influences and operational test problems. Based on this experience we offer recommendations to ISO and utility DR program managers to consider before undertaking further development of alternatives to the conventional but costly program-wide load research approach.