Article
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The User’s Perspective on Home Energy Management Systems
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Version 1
: Received: 26 September 2018 / Approved: 26 September 2018 / Online: 26 September 2018 (15:39:15 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Straub, A.; Volmer, E. User’s Perspective on Home Energy Management Systems. Environments 2018, 5, 126. Straub, A.; Volmer, E. User’s Perspective on Home Energy Management Systems. Environments 2018, 5, 126.
Abstract
In contrast to physical sustainable measures carried out in homes, such as insulation, the installation of a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) has no direct and immediate energy-saving effect. A HEMS gives insight into resident behaviour regarding energy use. When this is linked to the appropriate feedback, the resident is in a position to change his or her behaviour. This should result in reduced gas and/or electricity consumption. The aim of our study is to contribute towards the effective use of home energy management systems (HEMS) by identifying types of homeowners in relation to the use of HEMS. The research methods used were a literature review and the Q-method. A survey using the Q-method was conducted among 39 owners of single-family homes in various Rotterdam neighbourhoods. In order to find shared views among respondents, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed. Five different types of homeowner could be distinguished: the optimists, the privacy-conscious, the technicians, the sceptics, and the indifferent. Their opinions vary as regards the added value of a HEMS, what characteristics a HEMS should have, how much confidence they have in the energy-saving effect of such systems, and their views on the privacy and safety of HEMS. The target group classification can be used as input for a way in which local stakeholders, e.g. a municipality, can offer HEMS that is in line with the wishes of the homeowner.
Keywords
Energy consumption, Energy savings, Home Energy Management System (HEMS), Homeowners, Target group segmentation
Subject
Social Sciences, Behavior Sciences
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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