Abstract
Several treatments that could be implemented in the home environment are evaluated with the objective of reaching a more rational and efficient use of energy. We feel that detailed knowledge of energy-consuming behavior is paramount for the development and implementation of new technologies, services, and even policies that could result in more rational energy use. The proposed evaluation methodology is based on the development of economic experiments implemented in an experimental economics laboratory, where the behavior of individuals when making decisions related to energy use in the domestic environment can be tested.
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Notes
- 1.
Conchado and Linares (2010) is an interesting survey of the state of the art in the quantification of demand response program benefits.
- 2.
- 3.
Differences between winter and summer days are focused on the possibility of using a heating system that consumes gas energy.
- 4.
The utility provided by the use of electricity depends on the amount consumed according to a concave function. Parameterizations of these functions for each appliance are available upon request.
- 5.
Lighting is selected 24 h per period by default, and subjects must turn off the light at undesired hours by clicking on the square to the right of the corresponding hour.
- 6.
Advice that was provided included sentences such as: (a) Turn off equipment when it’s not in use; (b) The microwave uses less energy than the oven and it can cook the same foods; (c) Remember to turn off lights when you leave the room; and (d) A bath costs more than a shower, etc.
- 7.
Independent smart meters are offered for lighting, kitchen, gas consumption, leisure (TV, stereo, and computers) and others (washer, dishwasher, iron, and bathroom heater).
- 8.
Due to the fact that only a part of the studied variables are normal, we have done all the statistical research using Mann-Whitney tests (the results of the Shapiro-Wilk test over those variables are shown in Table 7.5). Only in the particular case when comparing two variables with a normal distribution, the Mann-Whitney and t-test have been done. We have not detected any difference between the results of both tests in any case.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support by BP Chair of Energy Efficiency—UJI, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project ECO2011-23634), the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness (project ECO2013-44409-P) and the Bank of Spain Excellence Chair in Computational Economics (project 11I229.01/1) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Martín, N.G., Sabater-Grande, G., García-Gallego, A., Georgantzis, N., Barreda-Tarrazona, I., Belenguer, E. (2016). Economic Experiments Used for the Evaluation of Building Users’ Energy-Saving Behavior. In: Boemi, SN., Irulegi, O., Santamouris, M. (eds) Energy Performance of Buildings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20831-2_7
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