Integrating User Centred Design into the development of energy saving technologies

Legally binding targets set by the UK government to reduce carbon emissions by 2050 mean it is imperative that the efficiency of the UK housing stock is improved. Housing currently contributes over 30% of the UK s total carbon emissions and a large proportion of the current stock will still exist in 2050. There is therefore a need to retrofit this existing stock with energy saving measures, as the savings from new builds will not be adequate to meet the stringent carbon reduction targets. Whilst technologies to facilitate energy saving retrofit are available, there has been a low uptake from householders in the UK, in part due to the lack of consideration of user requirements within the design of these technologies. To investigate this issue further, this thesis considers two main questions: How can the design of energy saving measures and the process of retrofit of the existing UK housing stock be improved through the use of user centred design (UCD) and How can UCD methods be applied to the research and development process for energy saving measures in order to improve the outcome? Through the research, it became clear that in order to answer these questions, it would be necessary to work across disciplines and therefore a third Research Question was posed; How can UCD facilitate working across disciplines in the context of an energy research project? The results provide evidence of how UCD can effectively improve the design and development process of energy saving technologies, the process of retrofit and the practice of cross-disciplinary working within a research environment. The research is novel in several ways: firstly, the UCD process has been applied in the area of domestic retrofit, giving new insights into the barriers and opportunities to retrofit; secondly, home improvement has been investigated by viewing the home as a complete, interacting system, using novel methods; thirdly, a set of UCD specifications have been created to inform the design of heat pumps, a specific domestic energy saving technology, and finally, enhancements to the UCD process are made for use within an energy technology project, together with the development of six principles for effective cross-disciplinary working and conceptualisation of the bridge building role which the UCD practitioner fulfills

Exploring past home improvement experiences to develop future energy saving technologies

This paper describes a participatory data collection tool designed for use within a multi-disciplinary energy research project. The tool was designed to encourage participants to narrate the story of their past home improvement experiences. The User Centred Designers within the team then used these stories to extract user requirements for use by engineering specialists within the project tea

The 100 day challenge: a literature review of the factors associated with tackling fuel poverty in the UK

Fuel poverty is a complex issue arising from a simple problem: the inability to afford to sufficiently heat one’s home. The Government has pledged that all vulnerable households should be removed from fuel poverty by 2010, with longer-term aims that no households in England should live in fuel poverty by 2016 and that, by 2018, fuel poverty should be completely eradicated throughout the UK . This report comprises a review of the available literature on the major issues associated with fuel poverty in the UK, with particular reference to the efficacy of staple methods used to treat fuel-poor households

Merging a practice-orientated approach with an engineering-driven product development: a case study on home improvement

CALEBRE, a four year research project, is developing technologies to improve the energy efficiency of solid-walled housing in the UK, particularly in the owner occupied market. The engineering partners within the project require very specific information from user-centred design (UCD) practitioners in order to develop innovative technologies. However the project recognises that it is the 'soft factors' that must be addressed in order to make these measures acceptable and appealing to householders. This requires a deeper understanding of users' motivations for improving their homes and the complex interplay of factors relating to aesthetics, lifestyle, life events, energy efficiency and finance. This paper presents how a practice-orientated UCD approach was taken to inform an engineering-driven product development process. It describes two data collection methods used within CALEBRE specifically to address these challenges and focuses on the specific home improvement practice of replacing windows. Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd