The recent energy and economic transitions, exacerbated COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, have heightened public awareness around energy saving in the residential building sector. While policymakers have introduced behavioural interventions and societal support for sustainable living has grown, achieving long-term behavioural change remains challenging due to psychological barriers such as the knowledge-action gap, status-quo bias and rebound effect. This study addresses the current lack of comprehensive design guidelines for eco-feedback systems, which have shown potential in promoting energy-conscious behaviours by providing users with real-time consumption data. Unlike previous studies that focus primarily on electricity, this research broadens the scope by integrating energy, water, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) feedback. A two-step approach was employed: i) a targeted literature review to identify effective eco-feedback system features and ii) a structured survey administered to 59 Italian resident users to investigate preferences, perceived effectiveness, and potential barriers related to integrated feedback systems. Survey results highlighted the preference for consumption and environmental impact data over costs. Fault detection was valued, and high-frequency updates were preferred for electricity and heating. Participants favoured device-level feedback for electricity and service-level for natural gas. In terms of platforms, smartphone apps and in-home displays were the most popular, with ideograms for benchmarking, line graphs for trends, and speedometers for real-time data being the preferred visualizations. Age-related differences were observed in terms of engagement and confidence with digital tools.
Designing feedback systems for buildings: Features and user preferences for energy consumption and indoor environmental quality
Puglisi G.;
2025-01-01
Abstract
The recent energy and economic transitions, exacerbated COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, have heightened public awareness around energy saving in the residential building sector. While policymakers have introduced behavioural interventions and societal support for sustainable living has grown, achieving long-term behavioural change remains challenging due to psychological barriers such as the knowledge-action gap, status-quo bias and rebound effect. This study addresses the current lack of comprehensive design guidelines for eco-feedback systems, which have shown potential in promoting energy-conscious behaviours by providing users with real-time consumption data. Unlike previous studies that focus primarily on electricity, this research broadens the scope by integrating energy, water, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) feedback. A two-step approach was employed: i) a targeted literature review to identify effective eco-feedback system features and ii) a structured survey administered to 59 Italian resident users to investigate preferences, perceived effectiveness, and potential barriers related to integrated feedback systems. Survey results highlighted the preference for consumption and environmental impact data over costs. Fault detection was valued, and high-frequency updates were preferred for electricity and heating. Participants favoured device-level feedback for electricity and service-level for natural gas. In terms of platforms, smartphone apps and in-home displays were the most popular, with ideograms for benchmarking, line graphs for trends, and speedometers for real-time data being the preferred visualizations. Age-related differences were observed in terms of engagement and confidence with digital tools.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
