Boosting affordability, acceptability and attractiveness of deep energy renovations of residential buildings – a people-centred ethnographic approach

Abstract

A prevailing perception within the research field of energy and buildings is that buildings – and not people – consume energy. Researchers and practitioners often neglect the important effect of the actual behaviour of people living or working in buildings, together with the values, habits, motivation factors, and other practices connected to the energy use. The key aim of this paper is to demonstrate the added value of the ethnographic approaches and interdisciplinary analysis for understanding and influencing human behaviour to support and enhance deep energy renovation of residential buildings. It presents the methodology together with preliminary findings from a demonstration study in Slovenia. It concludes by providing case-specific recommendations in terms of affordability, acceptability and attractiveness by considering everyday lifestyles, motivations, and issues faced by actors involved in the renovation processes.

Unintended Effects of Energy Efficiency Policy: Lessons Learned in the Residential Sector

“…These drivers increase the probability of investing in energy efficiency, which in turn increases the rate of renovation. These findings coincide with a similar study carried out in the multi-family building sector in Slovenia [66]. Other studies [67,68] also underline the importance of the role of a trustworthy neighbor; they suggest that the information provided by block leaders (persons belonging to the same social network and using face-to-face interactions) is a very effective intervention.…”

Evaluation results of combined labelling of dwellings located in different countries

“…There are different demo cases in the project in several countries: condominium in Hungary, multifamily building in Spain, Slovenia and Italy, single-family dwellings in the Netherlands and a student house in Greece. In all cases, a thorough ethnography research [1] was carried out aimed at collecting user demands before starting any development. Currently, the lack of knowledge is a significant barrier to implement renovation projects.…”

Motivation for Change

“…Co-design is a richer, more tangible understanding of the diverse and creative ways in which researchers and non-academic partners jointly develop research projects and find answers to research questions in a pragmatic way (Moser 2016). Further studies (Pink 2014;Cerinšek et al 2019;Podjed 2019) describe changing design practice and fruitful collaboration between design and anthropology in interdisciplinary projects, especially the added value of ethnographic approaches and interdisciplinary analysis for understanding and influencing human behavior, which have resulted in unique innovations in technology and services.…”