LLEC Energy Dashboard Suite: User Engagement for Energy-Efficient Behavior Using Dashboards and Gamification

International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems (ECOS), pp. 3241–3252

Abstract

With growing concerns about climate change and increasing energy costs, energy-efficient use of buildings offers an opportunity to decrease CO 2 emissions and costs.The behavior of building occupants plays a significant role in the process of improving this efficiency both for new and existing buildings.Therefore, we introduce a suite of web-based software applications that aim to encourage energy-efficient building occupant behavior in an office environment under the Living Lab Energy Campus (LLEC) initiative, using the campus of Forschungszentrum J ülich as a demonstration.The suite of applications, developed via a co-design process, provides means to view energy consumption data at various levels of aggregation, and to receive real-time recommendations and incentives for behavior change.Through the Energy Dashboard, users can monitor and analyze heating, cooling, and electrical energy consumption at building level.Leveraging IoT-enabled sensors and actuators, JuControl offers an interface to view room-specific indoor environmental, heating and ventilation data, and allows occupants to control the room heating by specifying a personal temperature setpoint range.Occupants also receive real-time feedback via recommendations for energy efficiency improvement, alongside periodic behavior evaluation in the form of ratings.The serious game JuPower gives users the opportunity to compete in teams to design a CO 2 -minimal alternative virtual energy system for the campus, whilst the users' real-world energy-related behavior is translated into in-game effects, thereby providing incentives for energy-efficient behavior via game rewards and social interaction.The interrelations among the applications, deployment strategies, and first outcomes are discussed.

Authors 7

1. Eziama Ubachukwu

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Energy Systems Engineering (IEK 10)

2. Jana Pick

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Energy Systems Engineering (IEK 10)

3. Lea Riebesel

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Energy Systems Engineering (IEK 10)

4. Paul Lieberenz

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Energy Systems Engineering (IEK 10)

5. Philipp Althaus

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Energy Systems Engineering (IEK 10)

6. Dirk Müller Aachen E.ON Energy Research Center Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate

   RWTH Aachen University, E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate, Aachen 52056, Germany

7. André Xhonneux

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Energy Systems Engineering (IEK 10)