Thermal comfort is central to energy consumption in housing and one of the main drivers behind worldwide GHG emissions. Research on residential energy consumption has therefore addressed comfort in relation to indoor temperatures. This paper argues that by widening the focus of comfort to include other aspects such as air, light and materials, more sustainable ideas of residential comfort might be developed. The paper takes a practice theoretical perspective but argues that the senses should be better incorporated into the approach to understand different aspects of comfort. The paper investigates how comfort can be understood as sensorial within theories of practice. This implies understanding how the senses are incorporated in embodied and routinized social practices, through which comfort is sensed and interpreted. Comfort is related to a range of everyday practices in the home, and the paper describes how aspects of comfort are perceived differently within different practices. The study is based on qualitative interview data from a Danish field study. However, the findings on how comfort in houses can be understood have a broader relevance as well. It is argued that this nuanced perspective on comfort can contribute to widening the debate and policy on residential energy consumption.

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Development of residential energy technologies aims at ensuring thermal comfort in an increasingly energy efficient manner. This development influences everyday practices related to comfort in everyday life in dwellings. Therefore this paper analyses empirical examples from interviews with residents in three types of Danish detached houses, related to the building age, to zoom in on how changes in technologies influence residents' practices and notions of comfort. Detached houses are the most widespread type of housing in Denmark, constituting 44 per cent of the housing stock. The analysis focuses on differences in heating systems between the housing types and shows how changes in technologies and material structures shape practices of heating and airing. In terms of heating practices and the meanings of comfort, a shift in technology from radiators to underfloor heating was found to make a clear difference in how houses are heated and thermal comfort perceived. The paper concludes that changes in material structures of houses consequently change residents' perceptions of comfort and the related everyday practices. The paper furthermore contributes by nuancing notions of comfort in relation to different practices, and specifically the relation between airing and heating practices, as well as the context of seasons and the outdoors.

This paper explores methodologically and theoretically how to understand variations in the temporal performances of showering as a practice-as-entity. Time-based data on domestic hot water consumption in 134 Danish households show distinctly different patterns, where some households exhibit highest consumption in the morning and others in the evening. This temporal pattern of showering is analysed based on an innovative combination of statistical cluster analysis and qualitative interviews. Focus is on the timing of showering related to sequences of other everyday practices, and to the rules, meanings and dispositions guiding this practice. From a sustainability perspective, the consumption of water and energy entailed by showering is problematic, and with increasingly intermittent renewable energy production, the timing of showering also becomes an issue. The study demonstrates that the time of showering is closely related to sequences of different practices, that dispositions and socio-demographics influence the order of sequences, and that meanings of showering may vary accordingly. However, there are also common meanings and rules related to showering across these variations, which contribute to the formation of showering as a practice-as-entity.

This paper investigates relations between notions of comfort and notions of home, aiming at a better understanding of residential comfort and the related energy consumption. Residential comfort is examined through a practice-theoretical lens and as something that appears in between the social and material structures of a home. The approach considers different elements of comfort in homemaking practices, such as the body, materials and social meanings. The paper examines how conceptions of comfort and homeliness interrelate through homemaking practices and thereby redefine comfort within a framework of the home and social practices. This implies focus on 'the comfortable home' as made up of homemaking practices that include knowhow, sensations and social norms. The empirical basis comprises interviews and visual data from a field study on detached housing on the outskirts of a Danish city. The paper concludes that the notion of home is central in understanding comfort and energy consumption in dwellings, as conceptions of comfort and home are intertwined but also carry different meanings. The different rooms of a house relate differently to the notions of home and comfort, which has implications for how energy is consumed within the home.