Data-Driven Sociotechnical Energy Management in Public Sector Buildings

Reducing energy demand from existing public-sector buildings through manager and occupant behaviour change is crucial for meeting UK carbon emission reduction targets. Public sector buildings account directly for 24% of UK service-sector building energy consumption, and corresponding carbon emissions. While there are many reduction efforts aimed at new-build, a focus on existing buildings is essential as much of the building stock that will be in place in the UK in 2050 is already built. Using an interdisciplinary conceptual framework, our team of computer scientists, architects and sociologists will work together to explore the interaction of energy technologies and building manager and occupant energy behaviours. Non-domestic energy demand will be able to be analysed in great detail across a variety of building types and uses, and the effect of behavioural and control feedback evaluated.

This project's main goal is to construct a feedback loop which provides information to building managers and occupants not just on their energy consumption, but also on what activities are using energy, how much for each one, together with suggestions for what they might do to reduce energy expenditure and use. The feedback loop will also be used in new automated control for building energy systems. We will construct these systems and evaluate their effectiveness by involving City of Edinburgh and University of Edinburgh buildings in a study over a two and a half year period. We will involve a variety of building uses including offices, labs, libraries, schools and community centres.

These systems and concepts will be explored in "Living Labs" in the buildings that will provide the managers and users with a wealth of information that they can use to reduce their energy expenditure. At the end of the study we will ask participants if we can use the data we have gathered, with any personal information removed, in future studies. Those that agree will be contributing to a database that will be invaluable for future research efforts by us and others.

The main direct beneficiaries of the project include: 1) public authorities who pay building energy bills, 2) utilities and other commercial enterprises that offer energy-related services to public-sector buildings, 3) policymakers charged with structuring policies to meet the UK carbon and energy security targets, and 4) third-sector and profit-making organisations that are often contracted to deliver aspects of carbon and energy policies in the building sector.

Cities and universities beyond the study will benefit directly from what we learn about how to effectively catalyse behaviour change that reduces their estate energy consumption. This will save them money immediately, and will contribute to emissions reductions which will benefit them and the planet at large in the longer term.

Service providers will benefit to the extent that we can identify behaviour change strategies that fit with the provider's goals. Utilities have government-mandated requirements to assist in demand reduction, which our results should help with. If we can identify significant potential savings, this will open the door for providers to offer new profit-making services to building owners and operators to achieve those savings.

Policymakers will benefit because for the first time we will be able to quantify the potential savings from providing behavioural feedback to building occupants. There is much speculation about potential savings but very little in the way of hard data - this project will remedy that lack. Quantification will enable policymakers to better plan the strategies for delivering the UK 2020 and 2050 emission targets.

Organisations that are already active in demand-reduction policy delivery will benefit because they will have more accurate advice and potentially a new set of tools to offer building occupants in the drive for demand reduction.

Indirectly, everyone in the UK will benefit from demand reduction because, as an activity that increases the efficiency with which energy is used in buildings (adequate comfort and convenience delivered with less energy), it will contribute to UK economic competitiveness. In macroeconomic terms, demand reduction translates to lower costs for services and eventually consumers, freeing up discretionary spending which boosts growth.

Additionally, everyone in the UK will benefit from demand reduction to the extent that it results in lower emissions, and therefore reduced requirement for and cost of mitigation measures.