IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v190y2017icp563-573.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Framework to investigate energy conservation motivation and actions of building occupants: The case of a green campus in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Author

Listed:
  • Azar, Elie
  • Al Ansari, Hamad

Abstract

Significant energy savings can be achieved in buildings by altering how occupants use and operate various building systems. The first step to successfully inducing such change requires a thorough assessment and understanding of the actual drivers and motivators of existing behaviors. The current literature on energy conservation behaviors in buildings presents significant limitations including: (1) the availability of data on human behavior in buildings; (2) the lack of consideration of various behavioral drivers (e.g., social, environmental, and economic); (3) simplified data analysis methods, which overlook combined effects of behavioral drivers; and (4) limited scopes of work to either residential or commercial buildings, overlooking potential synergies between the two. This paper aims to fill the stated gaps in the literature by proposing a comprehensive data collection and analysis framework to investigate the energy conservation motivation and actions of people in individual or groups of buildings (e.g., community or city). The framework is illustrated through a case study on a green campus located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Data was collected from a total of 227 campus users or residents, followed by descriptive and statistical analyses using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression models. Results indicate that energy saving awareness and motivation do not directly translate to actions, particularly at the workplace where a correlation coefficient of only 0.083 is observed. Factors such as respondents’ demographics, the level of control over building systems, and motivation drivers (e.g., financial, social, and environmental) highly affect energy saving actions and need through consideration for effective human-focused energy conservation strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Azar, Elie & Al Ansari, Hamad, 2017. "Framework to investigate energy conservation motivation and actions of building occupants: The case of a green campus in Abu Dhabi, UAE," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 563-573.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:190:y:2017:i:c:p:563-573
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.12.128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261916319110
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.12.128?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Menezes, Anna Carolina & Cripps, Andrew & Bouchlaghem, Dino & Buswell, Richard, 2012. "Predicted vs. actual energy performance of non-domestic buildings: Using post-occupancy evaluation data to reduce the performance gap," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 355-364.
    2. Zhao, Hai-xiang & Magoulès, Frédéric, 2012. "A review on the prediction of building energy consumption," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 3586-3592.
    3. Lakeridou, Michelle & Ucci, Marcella & Marmot, Alexi & Ridley, Ian, 2012. "The potential of increasing cooling set-points in air-conditioned offices in the UK," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 338-348.
    4. Pisello, Anna Laura & Asdrubali, Francesco, 2014. "Human-based energy retrofits in residential buildings: A cost-effective alternative to traditional physical strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 224-235.
    5. Yang, Liu & Yan, Haiyan & Lam, Joseph C., 2014. "Thermal comfort and building energy consumption implications – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 164-173.
    6. Vassileva, Iana & Wallin, Fredrik & Dahlquist, Erik, 2012. "Analytical comparison between electricity consumption and behavioral characteristics of Swedish households in rented apartments," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 182-188.
    7. Yun, Geun Young & Steemers, Koen, 2011. "Behavioural, physical and socio-economic factors in household cooling energy consumption," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 2191-2200, June.
    8. Fujimi, Toshio & Kajitani, Yoshio & Chang, Stephanie E., 2016. "Effective and persistent changes in household energy-saving behaviors: Evidence from post-tsunami Japan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 93-106.
    9. Murtagh, Niamh & Nati, Michele & Headley, William R. & Gatersleben, Birgitta & Gluhak, Alexander & Imran, Muhammad Ali & Uzzell, David, 2013. "Individual energy use and feedback in an office setting: A field trial," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 717-728.
    10. Li, Ran & Wang, Zhimin & Gu, Chenghong & Li, Furong & Wu, Hao, 2016. "A novel time-of-use tariff design based on Gaussian Mixture Model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1530-1536.
    11. Foucquier, Aurélie & Robert, Sylvain & Suard, Frédéric & Stéphan, Louis & Jay, Arnaud, 2013. "State of the art in building modelling and energy performances prediction: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 272-288.
    12. Azar, Elie & Menassa, Carol C., 2014. "A comprehensive framework to quantify energy savings potential from improved operations of commercial building stocks," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 459-472.
    13. Anderson, Kyle & Lee, SangHyun, 2016. "An empirically grounded model for simulating normative energy use feedback interventions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 272-282.
    14. Abrahamse, Wokje & Steg, Linda, 2009. "How do socio-demographic and psychological factors relate to households' direct and indirect energy use and savings?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 711-720, October.
    15. Li, Cheng & Hong, Tianzhen & Yan, Da, 2014. "An insight into actual energy use and its drivers in high-performance buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 394-410.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammed Alnahhal†& Omar Antar & Ahmad Sakhrieh & Muataz Al Hazza, 2024. "Analyzing Energy Consumption in Universities: A Literature Review," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(3), pages 18-27, May.
    2. Shen, Meng & Lu, Yujie & Wei, Kua Harn & Cui, Qingbin, 2020. "Prediction of household electricity consumption and effectiveness of concerted intervention strategies based on occupant behaviour and personality traits," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    3. Yun Duan, 2022. "A Novel Interval Energy-Forecasting Method for Sustainable Building Management Based on Deep Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Wang, Wei & Chen, Jiayu & Huang, Gongsheng & Lu, Yujie, 2017. "Energy efficient HVAC control for an IPS-enabled large space in commercial buildings through dynamic spatial occupancy distribution," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 305-323.
    5. Banhidarah, Abdullah Khamis & Al-Sumaiti, Ameena Saad & Wescoat, James L. & Nguyen, Hoach The, 2020. "Electricity-water usage for sustainable development: An analysis of United Arab Emirates farms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    6. Daiva Dumciuviene & Akvile Cibinskiene & Meda Andrijauskiene, 2019. "Determinants of Energy Saving: Evidence from a Vocational School in Greece," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-16, September.
    7. Khosrowpour, Ardalan & Jain, Rishee K. & Taylor, John E. & Peschiera, Gabriel & Chen, Jiayu & Gulbinas, Rimas, 2018. "A review of occupant energy feedback research: Opportunities for methodological fusion at the intersection of experimentation, analytics, surveys and simulation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 304-316.
    8. Muhammad Rizwan Ali & Muhammad Shafiq & Murad Andejany, 2021. "Determinants of Consumers’ Intentions towards the Purchase of Energy Efficient Appliances in Pakistan: An Extended Model of the Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Li, Qianwen & Long, Ruyin & Chen, Hong, 2018. "Differences and influencing factors for Chinese urban resident willingness to pay for green housings: Evidence from five first-tier cities in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 299-313.
    10. Francisco, Abigail & Taylor, John E., 2019. "Understanding citizen perspectives on open urban energy data through the development and testing of a community energy feedback system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    11. Li, Rui & Fang, Debin & Xu, Jiajun, 2024. "Does China's carbon inclusion policy promote household carbon emissions reduction? Theoretical mechanisms and empirical evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    12. Hongmei Zhao & Yang Xu & Wei-Chiang Hong & Yi Liang & Dandan Zou, 2021. "Smart Evaluation of Green Campus Sustainability Considering Energy Utilization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-21, July.
    13. Katarina Bäcklund & Marco Molinari & Per Lundqvist & Björn Palm, 2023. "Building Occupants, Their Behavior and the Resulting Impact on Energy Use in Campus Buildings: A Literature Review with Focus on Smart Building Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-21, August.
    14. Xie, Jiantong & Pan, Yiqun & Jia, Wenqi & Xu, Lei & Huang, Zhizhong, 2019. "Energy-consumption simulation of a distributed air-conditioning system integrated with occupant behavior," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fujimi, Toshio & Kajitani, Yoshio & Chang, Stephanie E., 2016. "Effective and persistent changes in household energy-saving behaviors: Evidence from post-tsunami Japan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 93-106.
    2. Azar, Elie & Nikolopoulou, Christina & Papadopoulos, Sokratis, 2016. "Integrating and optimizing metrics of sustainable building performance using human-focused agent-based modeling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 926-937.
    3. Wang, Lan & Lee, Eric W.M. & Hussian, Syed Asad & Yuen, Anthony Chun Yin & Feng, Wei, 2021. "Quantitative impact analysis of driving factors on annual residential building energy end-use combining machine learning and stochastic methods," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    4. Tronchin, Lamberto & Manfren, Massimiliano & Nastasi, Benedetto, 2018. "Energy efficiency, demand side management and energy storage technologies – A critical analysis of possible paths of integration in the built environment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 341-353.
    5. Pisello, Anna Laura & Asdrubali, Francesco, 2014. "Human-based energy retrofits in residential buildings: A cost-effective alternative to traditional physical strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 224-235.
    6. Mavromatidis, Georgios & Orehounig, Kristina & Carmeliet, Jan, 2018. "A review of uncertainty characterisation approaches for the optimal design of distributed energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 258-277.
    7. Ardeshir Mahdavi & Christiane Berger & Hadeer Amin & Eleni Ampatzi & Rune Korsholm Andersen & Elie Azar & Verena M. Barthelmes & Matteo Favero & Jakob Hahn & Dolaana Khovalyg & Henrik N. Knudsen & Ale, 2021. "The Role of Occupants in Buildings’ Energy Performance Gap: Myth or Reality?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-44, March.
    8. Niemierko, Rochus & Töppel, Jannick & Tränkler, Timm, 2019. "A D-vine copula quantile regression approach for the prediction of residential heating energy consumption based on historical data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 691-708.
    9. Salata, Ferdinando & Ciancio, Virgilio & Dell'Olmo, Jacopo & Golasi, Iacopo & Palusci, Olga & Coppi, Massimo, 2020. "Effects of local conditions on the multi-variable and multi-objective energy optimization of residential buildings using genetic algorithms," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    10. Khosrowpour, Ardalan & Jain, Rishee K. & Taylor, John E. & Peschiera, Gabriel & Chen, Jiayu & Gulbinas, Rimas, 2018. "A review of occupant energy feedback research: Opportunities for methodological fusion at the intersection of experimentation, analytics, surveys and simulation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 304-316.
    11. Yen-Jong Chen & Rodney H Matsuoka & Tzu-Min Liang, 2018. "Urban form, building characteristics, and residential electricity consumption: A case study in Tainan City," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 45(5), pages 933-952, September.
    12. Paulína Šujanová & Monika Rychtáriková & Tiago Sotto Mayor & Affan Hyder, 2019. "A Healthy, Energy-Efficient and Comfortable Indoor Environment, a Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-37, April.
    13. Joowook Kim & Doosam Song & Suyeon Kim & Sohyun Park & Youngjin Choi & Hyunwoo Lim, 2020. "Energy-Saving Potential of Extending Temperature Set-Points in a VRF Air-Conditioned Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-17, May.
    14. Balaras, Constantinos A. & Dascalaki, Elena G. & Droutsa, Kalliopi G. & Kontoyiannidis, Simon, 2016. "Empirical assessment of calculated and actual heating energy use in Hellenic residential buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 115-132.
    15. Touretzky, Cara R. & Patil, Rakesh, 2015. "Building-level power demand forecasting framework using building specific inputs: Development and applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 466-477.
    16. Spandagos, Constantine & Yarime, Masaru & Baark, Erik & Ng, Tze Ling, 2020. "“Triple Target” policy framework to influence household energy behavior: Satisfy, strengthen, include," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    17. Hsu, David, 2015. "Identifying key variables and interactions in statistical models of building energy consumption using regularization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 144-155.
    18. Wang, Wei & Chen, Jiayu & Huang, Gongsheng & Lu, Yujie, 2017. "Energy efficient HVAC control for an IPS-enabled large space in commercial buildings through dynamic spatial occupancy distribution," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 305-323.
    19. Ferdinando Salata & Anna Tarsitano & Iacopo Golasi & Emanuele De Lieto Vollaro & Massimo Coppi & Andrea De Lieto Vollaro, 2016. "Application of Absorption Systems Powered by Solar Ponds in Warm Climates for the Air Conditioning in Residential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-18, October.
    20. Mohamed, Ahmed M.A. & Al-Habaibeh, Amin & Abdo, Hafez & Elabar, Sherifa, 2015. "Towards exporting renewable energy from MENA region to Europe: An investigation into domestic energy use and householders’ energy behaviour in Libya," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 247-262.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:190:y:2017:i:c:p:563-573. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.