A Study of Awareness and Electricity Use Behaviour of On-campus Residence Students in Nigeria

The study explored the awareness and reported energy use behaviour among higher education students in Southwestern Nigeria; examined the relationship between the level of awareness of the impact of energy use behaviour of students and also provides strategies that could be used to improve the level of awareness of stakeholders. We adopted a quantitative survey and questionnaire as instruments for gathering relevant data from end users in the study area and relevant data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that end users had low level of awareness of the negative impact of energy use behaviour 201(81.4%) and had not been trained on energy saving measures. However, they were more aware of the positive impact of energy use behaviour 194(79.0%). The analysis also showed a significant relationship between awareness and reported energy use behaviour; awareness level and turning off light when not needed (r = 0.897, p = 0.001), awareness level and shutting down all computers unless in use (r = 0.189, p = 0.044) and awareness level and leaving computer running overnight (r = 0.452, p = 0.003). The study concluded that the level of awareness of energy saving measures of electricity end users was very low and consequently a lot of energy could be wasted in return. To maximize energy saving potentials of the students, there is need for authorities in tertiary institutions to make effort to raise the awareness of everyone involved; including the management of institutions through an energy efficiency awareness programme, as this could help higher education institutions to achieve energy sustainability and reduce waste. The study developed a framework for improving and enhancing students’ awareness on the impact of energy use behaviour

Can Energy Savings from Operations Promoting Energy Efficient Behaviors in Office Buildings be Accounted for?

International audienceWhen looking for solutions to mitigate the growth of energy consumption in the commercial buildings sector, research works often focus on the energy performance of buildings. Indeed, many studies established how large the technical improvement potential was in this sector. But cost-effective energy savings can also be achieved in a complementary way by an improved energy management promoting energy efficient behaviors, because energy consumptions depend on both energy performance of buildings and equipments, and end-users behaviors. Past experiences tend to show that if awareness operations were widely disseminated, a significant amount of energy savings could be realized. It is likely that more and more organizations engage such operations. Unfortunately, their real impacts remain rather unknown and uncertain, mainly because they are not perceived as a serious option. Consequently they are implemented in very heterogeneous ways. Thus, their results may vary a lot too. This paper first reminds success factors analyzed in previous works, before presenting monitoring guidelines to ensure that energy savings can be accounted for. This methodological approach could be an entry to consider the inclusion of behavioral actions in schemes accounting for energy savings, such as white certificates. The option to include awareness operations in an energy management service appears to create good conditions ensuring the quality of the operations and therefore an accounting system reliable enough for certified energy savings. Admitting this new kind of energy service in white certificates schemes would on the one side provide a clear recognition of behavioral actions, and on the other side promote quality standards ensuring more homogeneity and effectiveness among this kind of operation

A survey of recommender systems for energy efficiency in buildings: Principles, challenges and prospects

Recommender systems have significantly developed in recent years in parallel with the witnessed advancements in both internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Accordingly, as a consequence of IoT and AI, multiple forms of data are incorporated in these systems, e.g. social, implicit, local and personal information, which can help in improving recommender systems' performance and widen their applicability to traverse different disciplines. On the other side, energy efficiency in the building sector is becoming a hot research topic, in which recommender systems play a major role by promoting energy saving behavior and reducing carbon emissions. However, the deployment of the recommendation frameworks in buildings still needs more investigations to identify the current challenges and issues, where their solutions are the keys to enable the pervasiveness of research findings, and therefore, ensure a large-scale adoption of this technology. Accordingly, this paper presents, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the first timely and comprehensive reference for energy-efficiency recommendation systems through (i) surveying existing recommender systems for energy saving in buildings; (ii) discussing their evolution; (iii) providing an original taxonomy of these systems based on specified criteria, including the nature of the recommender engine, its objective, computing platforms, evaluation metrics and incentive measures; and (iv) conducting an in-depth, critical analysis to identify their limitations and unsolved issues. The derived challenges and areas of future implementation could effectively guide the energy research community to improve the energy-efficiency in buildings and reduce the cost of developed recommender systems-based solutions.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl

A Practical Review to Support the Implementation of Smart Solutions within Neighbourhood Building Stock

The construction industry has witnessed an increase in the use of digital tools and smart solutions, particularly in the realm of building energy automation. While realising the potential benefits of smart cities, a broader scope of smart initiatives is required to support the transition from smart buildings towards smart neighbourhoods, which are considered critical urban development units. To support the interplay of smart solutions between buildings and neighbourhoods, this study aimed to collect and review all the smart solutions presented in existing scientific articles, the technical literature, and realised European projects. These solutions were classified into two main sections, buildings and neighbourhoods, which were investigated through five domains: building-energy-related uses, renewable energy sources, water, waste, and open space management. The quantitative outcomes demonstrated the potential benefits of implementing smart solutions in areas ranging from buildings to neighbourhoods. Moreover, this research concluded that the true enhancement of energy conservation goes beyond the building’s energy components and can be genuinely achieved by integrating intelligent neighbourhood elements owing to their strong interdependencies. Future research should assess the effectiveness of these solutions in resource conservation

An Assessment of PIER Electric Grid Research 2003-2014 White Paper

This white paper describes the circumstances in California around the turn of the 21st century that led the California Energy Commission (CEC) to direct additional Public Interest Energy Research funds to address critical electric grid issues, especially those arising from integrating high penetrations of variable renewable generation with the electric grid. It contains an assessment of the beneficial science and technology advances of the resultant portfolio of electric grid research projects administered under the direction of the CEC by a competitively selected contractor, the University of California’s California Institute for Energy and the Environment, from 2003-2014

A survey study of steering wheel vibration and sound in automobiles at idle

Copyright @ 2009 Engineering Integrity SocietyThis work is supported by Shell Global Solutions UK for their sponsorship of this research as part of the activities of the EFII3 project

What IS Can Do for Environmental Sustainability: A Report from CAiSE’11 Panel on Green and Sustainable IS

The panel on Green and Sustainable Information Systems at the 21st International Conference on Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE’11), held in London in June 2011, was held to discuss issues in Environmental Sustainability and Information Systems within the Information Systems Engineering research community. This panel report describes the panelists’ views on using information systems for improving sustainability and on improving the energy efficiency of the data centres on which information systems are based. The current topics of research, possible contributions of the IS community, and future directions are discussed