reduce building energy use through occupant engagement
DESCRIPTION
How well do your occupants work with you to reduce energy consumption? According to the EPA and the Center for the Built Environment at UC Berkeley, promoting energy awareness among building occupants can provide energy savings of 5-15% for a negligible upfront cost. This presentation includes: • An overview of approaches to enabling occupancy engagement on energy conservation in commercial and institutional buildings • The role energy information systems can play to support your employee engagement • Helpful tips and practical suggestions for supporting your employees in changing their energy consumptionTRANSCRIPT
Enhancing Energy Conservation and
Efficiency with Occupant Engagement
Presenters:
Andrew Pape-Salmon
Director (on sabbatical), Energy Efficiency Branch
BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
David Helliwell
Co-founder and CEO
Pulse Energy
Overview
• Case Study – Jack Davis Building
• Lighting Energy Conservation Campaign
• Tools Employed: Social Marketing and Energy
Information Systems
• Results and Conclusions
Case Study: Reducing Energy in an Office
Building – Jack Davis Building
• Initiatives:
– Modest technology and
building retrofits
– Launch of a Green Team
– Workstation tune-ups
– Green Pledges
• Power Smart commitment: reduce internal electricity
demand by 9% by 2009 and by 20% by 2020
• Carbon Neutral Government by December 31, 2010
Lighting Energy Conservation Campaign
• Lighting retrofit in 2008 installed:
– photo sensors and dimmable
ballasts on floor #4;
– Light switches on floor #5; and,
– Occupancy sensors in meeting
rooms and washrooms.
• July 2009 campaign aimed to
achieve deeper savings through
engagement of 200 employees
• Used an Energy Information
System (EIS) to provide
immediate feedback
Tools Employed
• Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM):
– Communication – concrete, targeted, vivid, interactive
– Prompts
– Empowering champions
– Convenience (remove barriers)
• Feedback and Energy Information Systems:
– Real-time information
– Combination of tables, text and charts
– Monitoring of the specific end-uses (lighting on each floor)
– Dashboard on the Intranet (no login required)
– Comparison with control case (average annual demand)
Lighting Energy Conservation
Campaign: Results
4th floor (automated day light dimming)
5th floor (occupant engagement)
6th floor (no retrofits)
12.0% 12.6%
2.4%
Energy Savings
Lighting Energy Conservation
Campaign: Results
• Prompting had observable effects on behaviour
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Ele
ctr
ica
l D
em
an
d (
kW
)
5th Floor Lunchtime Electrical Demand
Avg. Electrical Demand from 12:15-1pm
Lighting Energy Conservation
Campaign: Results
• Clear relationship between energy savings and
visits to energy information tool dashboard:
Lighting Energy Conservation
Campaign: Conclusions
• Occupant engagement achieved electricity savings of
12% over and above the impact of installing new
energy efficiency technologies
• Key factors for successful occupant engagement:
– Designate an energy champion
– Customize information to specific actions being promoted
– Use timely email prompts
– Display comparison information
Lighting Energy Conservation
Campaign: Conclusions
• Energy Information Systems play an important role in
occupant engagement by:
– Improving the effectiveness of CBSM tools
– Helping to identify key opportunities for energy savings
– Providing comparison information to determine which
approaches are most effective
Reducing Energy in an Office Building:
Additional Engagement Actions
• Additional CBSM and EIS tools that could be
employed
– Further barrier removal (more light switches)
– Commitment – pledges to support target
– Long-term prompting
– Setting new norms to support persistence of savings
– Incentives and disincentives
Pulse Energy Management Software
Pulse Energy Management Software
Pulse Energy Management Software
Pulse Energy Management Software
Q & A
Pulse Energy’s New Dashboard
Thank you!
• Additional questions? Contact Pulse Energy at:
1-778-331-0500 or email us at
• Look for our email with a link to the webinar recording
• Look for future webinars on our website:
www.pulseenergy.com