A computer game to help people understand the energy performance of buildings

Abstract

Building users play an important role in determining the energy use of a specific building. Indeed, their behaviour could be one of the reasons behind the energy 'performance gap' observed in many buildings. Moreover, informed building users can promote the sustainability agenda through their consumer choices. This, however, raises the issue of understanding the energy performance of buildings. This paper presents an exercise on developing and testing a computer game which introduces players to the basic concepts of building energy performance. A software application was developed to visualise post-occupancy evaluation data in a dynamic three-dimensional context. A pilot study was used for assessing and fine-tuning the methodology, followed by the main study of two workshops with two different user groups: non-experts and entry-level specialists. The results are presented using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings suggest that the advantages and challenges of 'gamification' described in the literature are generally confirmed by the tentative evidence of this exercise. In addition, the process highlights the potential of novel ways of presenting building data in enabling more stakeholders to engage with the issue of building energy performance. Engineering SustainabilityA computer game to help people understand the energy performance of buildings Patlakas and Raslan ice | proceedings Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Engineering Sustainability http://dx.

Gamification Approaches and Assessment Methodologies for Occupants’ Energy Behavior Change in Buildings: A Systematic Review

“…This overall selection process yielded a final set of 21 principal articles. The chosen studies, meeting all predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, were found to address various perspectives outlined within the criteria, which have been classified into four categories: (1) gamification integration with different building platforms [26,27,[37][38][39][40][41][42]; (2) gamified design elements [43][44][45][46]; (3) gamification solutions with different gamified mechanisms [32,[47][48][49][50] and (4) various gamification techniques [33,[51][52][53].…”

“…The investigation was extended to the examination of various gamification methods employed in different building types. The literature reveals seven implementation techniques, namely Human-Machine Interface (HMI) [38], Apps [26], Internet of Things (IoT) based [50], web-based gamified systems [43], software [44], ICT platforms [27,33] and Graphical User Interface (GUI) [56], as identified by the principal studies selected for this review. The radar chart below (Figure 5) gathers data from the chosen relevant literature on various gamification techniques, based on the building type.…”

“…A decision matrix was used to show the characteristics of pros and cons among seven implementation techniques, in terms of human-centric [45,48], data-driven [57], and convergence perspectives [37,42] (see Table 1), based on the selected studies. Specifically, among the seven evaluated aspects, 'User-friendliness' and 'Customization' emerged as recurring themes in the literature, mainly emphasizing the improvement of user engagement and behavior change [32,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. Hence, these aspects were assigned to the 'humancentric' perspective for the discussion of different gamification techniques in Table 1.…”

Case Studies of Environmental Visualization

“…The particular rules of the game, as well as the gaming environment, were developed by the authors and can be found in detail in previous work [38]. In summary, participants were required to take on the role of a facilities manager, who has to decide how different building spaces perform, and decide which ones to prioritize for future maintenance and improvement.…”

Editorial: Zero Energy Mass Custom Home (ZEMCH)

“…The third paper in this issue (Patlakas and Raslan, 2017) discusses the significant role of building users in determining the energy use of buildings and the influence of their behaviour on the 'performance gap'. The authors attempted to addressed the issue by using 'gamification' or game-based tools to help users better understand the issues relating to building performance, post-occupancy evaluation surveys and facilities management.…”