Browsing by Author "Stuart, Graeme"

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    Agent-Based Modelling of Electricity Access in Informal Settlements in South Africa
    (WIT Press, 2022-07-01) Kerr, Daniel William; Stuart, Graeme; Snape, J. Richard
    In the latter half of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century, urbanisation in developing countries has increased dramatically. Across the developing world, urban populations have been rising rapidly, and the capacity of national and municipal governments to service these growing populations has not been able to keep pace with rising demand. This has led to a rise in informal access to services and the development of informal settlements. Defining informal habitation is complex, but some common features are a lack of access to the formal services of the city, be that water, sanitation, electricity, or housing services. Across the developing world, growth in informal settlements has accompanied urban population growth: 1.03 billion people in 2018 lived in informal settlements, according to the United Nations, 233 million of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa. For the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11), to be achieved by 2030, access to urban services needs to be accelerated. South African electricity services in urban informal settlements have seen significant development over the past decade, with programs such as the Upgrading Informal Settlements Program (UISP) ‘giving priority to the provision of basic services and functional tenure’. However, access to services is still a challenge in many informal settlement communities, and illegal access to basic services, particularly electricity, remains high. This research uses a novel agent-based modelling methodology to determine which factors affect most strongly the incidences of illegal access to electricity, as well as the main drivers and barriers to greater formal access to electricity in informal settlements in South Africa. Access to capital, political economy barriers, and technical challenges contribute to high incidences of illegal access, and addressing these barriers will lead to higher formal access rates and more reliable electricity services for residents.
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    Can persuasion theory help assess a deliberative communication approach?
    (Heriot-Watt University and the Academy of Marketing., 2013-09-06) Wilson, Caroline; Stuart, Graeme
    Energy efficiency is increasingly being seen as a method to help the UK and the EU meet obligations to reduce carbon emissions. Some of the changes needed to the way we consume energy will be achieved through regulation. Others will require us to choose to behave differently. One way of engaging the consumers of energy in buildings is the provision of information as part of a marketing campaign. What makes information capable of encouraging behaviour change is contextual, according to the communication situation and the interests, cultural expectations and needs of the audience. As such campaigns should be pre-assessed when possible in an ex-ante evaluation. This paper investigates the usefulness of applying a persuasive marketing framework to assess the likely impact of a social marketing campaign desiring to use information as a key component in driving behaviour change. The goal is to see if the framework continues to have utility when applied to a campaign which is not overtly persuasive, but rather adopts a ‘bottom-up communication approach’. Such an approach involves both campaign designers and receivers in a symmetrical process using dialogue, participation and involvement in the process, as opposed to a top-down approach to communication featuring scientific persuasion or instructional transmission of information.
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    Closing the feedback loop: A systems approach to supporting community-wide behaviour change in non-domestic buildings
    (ACEEE: Proceedings of Summer Study, 2016-08) Stuart, Graeme; Snape, J. Richard; Fleming, P. D.
    Energy consumption is notoriously invisible to building users. Communicating energy performance to users presents a significant opportunity to support behaviour change. Access to near real-time consumption data makes ubiquitous energy performance feedback systems a realistic possibility. Non-domestic building energy performance is a complicated issue, so providing simple, intelligible feedback can be difficult. Communicating what building users are supposed to do with the information is still more so. A true closed-loop feedback system must include both communication of information to users and a means for users to affect the building to which the information pertains. This paper reports the design and use of a novel information system to facilitate a true feedback loop between a community of building stakeholders (users, energy professionals, researchers) and 25 pilot buildings. The buildings were equipped to communicate energy performance in near real time via a user-friendly ‘dashboard’ built on a sophisticated system of automated data capture, energy consumption modelling, predictive statistical analysis and visualisation. The ‘dashboard’ allowed casual users to access information easily via a simple happy/sad performance indicator whilst more “data-philic” users were able to click through to a data rich, easy-to-use interface. Users were also provided with access to a digital social platform enabling transparent discussion of energy performance with reference to the objective data. Results show that the ‘dashboard’ and digital social platform components are each valuable in their own right but in combination they produced a system whereby users could identify and solve energy and water performance problems effectively and efficiently.
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    Competing priorities: Lessons in engaging students to achieve energy savings in universities.
    (International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2018-10) Bull, R.; Stuart, Graeme; Everitt, Dave; Jennings, N; Romanowicz, J.; Laskari, M
    This paper presents findings from an EU funded international student-led energy saving competition (SAVES) on a scale previously unseen. There are multiple accounts of short-term projects and energy saving competitions encouraging pro-environmental behaviour change amongst students in university dormitories but the purpose of this research is to provide evidence of consistent and sustained energy savings from student-led energy savings competitions, underpinned by practical action. A mixed methods approach (pre- and post- intervention surveys, focus groups and analysis of energy meter data) was taken to determine the level of energy savings and quantifiable behaviour change delivered by students across participating university dormitories. This research has provided further insight into the potential for savings and behaviour change in university dormitories through relatively simple actions. Whilst other interventions have shown greater savings, this project provided consistent savings over two years 7% across a large number of university dormitories in five countries through simple behaviour changes. An energy dashboard displaying near a real-time leaderboard was added to the engagement in the second year of the project. Whilst students were optimistic about the role that energy dashboards could play, the evidence is not here to quantify the impact of dashboards. Further research is required to understand the potential of dashboards to contribute to behavioural change savings and in constructing competitions between people and dormitories that are known to each other. SAVES provided engagement with students, enabling, empowering and motivating them to save energy – focusing specifically on the last stage of the ‘Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action’ framework. Automated meter reading data was used in the majority of participating dormitories to run near real-time energy challenges through an energy dashboard that informed students how much energy they saved compared to a target, and encouraged peer-to-peer learning and international cooperation through a virtual twinning scheme. Findings from energy saving competitions in universities are typically from small-scale and short-term interventions. SAVES was an energy-saving competition in university dormitories facilitated by the UK National Union of Students in five countries reaching over 50,000 students over two academic years (incorporating dormitories at 17 universities). As such it provides clear and important evidence of the real-world long-term potential efficiency savings of such interventions.
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    Designing live energy performance feedback for public buildings in Leicester
    (European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, 2013-06) Stuart, Graeme; Wilson, Caroline; Bull, R.; Irvine, K. N.
    Buildings represent a huge potential for energy savings, in the UK buildings account for 45 % of energy consumption. Buildings owned and managed by the public sector make up more than 10 % of the EU building stock. In recent years there has been much interest in the use of feedback systems to encourage energy behaviour change but very little literature on the design of feedback systems in the non-domestic setting. The EU “SMARTSPACES” project is developing ICT services using data generated from smart metering systems in public buildings at 11 pilot sites across Europe. The SMARTSPACES system being developed in the Leicester pilot site will provide users with a live, half-hourly comparison of energy (electricity and gas) performance across 20 public buildings. A new indicator of energy performance is proposed. The indicator relates consumption for the current half-hour with the distribution of equivalent historical values. The indicator is robust and unambiguous, reflecting progress in energy saving activity, normalised to each building. The context in which the indicator is presented is also described along with the wider project which is intended to support a change of organisational culture to an active, energy aware community of staff and visitors communicating with energy professionals in the context of ubiquitous building energy performance information.
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    Digitally Engaging and Empowering Employees for Energy Demand Reduction: A New Approach for the Next Generation?
    (ACEEE, 2014-04) Bull, R.; Lemon, Mark; Fleming, P. D.; Stuart, Graeme; Everitt, Dave
    Opinion is divided over whether technical solutions or behavioural change strategies offer the best energy savings potential in buildings. Behaviour change initiatives could have impact given current estimates that 30% of energy in buildings is wasted. However, technical solutions epitomised by ‘smart’ cities and buildings, exhort the role of information and communications technology (IT) and the digital economy as offering significant potential for carbon reduction. Yet both technical and behavioural approaches share the same contested assumption: users are a hurdle to overcome rather than a resource to be utilized. This paper presents an alternative approach, informed by social media and public participation experts, reframing the relationships between energy management personnel and those using the energy. This paper presents new findings from a UK research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council. Working with a local authority energy team and a user-group of building users (from energy managers to ‘ordinary’ users) Gooddeeds developed and tested digital technologies social media/smartphone tools to engage with, and empower, employees in the reduction of their building’s environmental impact. Findings from the first set of focus groups with the user group offer insight into the potential for a more collaborative approach to benefit building users through raising awareness of best practice with regards building energy management. In particular, collaborative approaches have the potential to empower building users with the tools and contacts to resolve issues more quickly. Yet there can be no ‘one-size’ fits all approach to non-domestic buildings with this research highlighting clear variations of engagement and interest in this approach dependent on building type.
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    The Gorilla in the Library: lessons in using ICT to engage building users in energy reduction
    (2012-10) Bull, R.; Everitt, Dave; Stuart, Graeme; Rieser, Martin
    This paper is concerned with the role of the digital economy as an enabler of behaviour change in the built environment. The Greenview research project at De Montfort University (DMU), funded by JISC’s Greening ICT fund , has undertaken innovative work to explore novel and interesting ways to engage building users in energy reduction. Findings are presented around both the methodological challenges of capturing and presenting live electrical data for iPhone applications and the wider opportunities and barriers to ICT enabled behaviour change. From a technical perspective Greenview has shown the need to conduct detailed and thorough technical work to ensure the visualisations correlate to actual building performance and from the behaviour change perspective both Greenview and its predecessor (DUALL ) have explored moving beyond quantitative approaches to presenting information on energy and sustainability that is fun, creative and [hopefully] engaging. Finally, it is clear that without senior commitment and sincere staff engagement and collaboration mere information provision in the form of dashboards are impotent.
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    Institutional, social and individual behavioural effects of energy feedback in public buildings across eleven European cities
    (Elsevier, 2017-08-19) Ozawa-Meida, L.; Wilson, Caroline; Fleming, P. D.; Stuart, Graeme; Holland, Carl
    Better understanding of the factors influencing how people use energy in public buildings can help deliver more effective CO2 reduction strategies. This paper describes the institutional, social and individual behavioural effects of communication campaigns in over 500 public buildings in 11 European cities. These campaigns involved engaging with staff to reduce energy use through feedback services based on information from sub hourly meter readings. A summative evaluation was conducted to understand impacts of different information provision in these cities. Qualitative data were gathered through a set of interviews with 40 building professionals at the central or building level. These interviews identified differences in how the energy efficiency communication-based campaigns were implemented at each site and elicited factors to explain how users’ perceptions and understanding changed as a result of the interventions. The evaluation framework helped to identify not only improvements in the delivery of communication-based campaigns, but also the communication factors that impacted on individual behaviour change. The research highlighted the influence of institutional and social effects on individual beliefs and norms. To achieve more effective change in attitudes to reduce use, energy feedback needs to be supported with engagement activities, such as energy coaches, campaigns, and interactive online fora.
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    Intelligent metering for energy savings in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises : experiences at the local level in 5 European countries, Proc ECEEE Summer Study 2011
    (2011) Webber, P. H.; Chauhan, D.; Morris, N.; Fleming, P. D.; Stuart, Graeme; Ferreira, Vasco Guedes
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    Introducing JavaScript Game Development: Build a 2D Game from the Ground Up
    (Apress, 2017-12-07) Stuart, Graeme
    Learn to build a fully-functional 2D game inspired by the 1979 Atari classic, Asteroids, using just HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Developing games has never been easier than it is now. New web technology allows even beginner developers to turn their hand to game development. Developed from an undergraduate course module, Introducing JavaScript Game Development teaches each new technology as it is introduced so can be followed by enthusiastic beginners as well as intermediate coders. You will learn how to work with HTML5 and the canvas element, how to understand paths, how to draw to a design and create your spaceship and asteroids. You'll then move on to animating your game, and finally building. You will work step-by-step through the game design process, starting with only what is necessary to complete each step, and refactoring the code as necessary along the way, reflecting the natural progression that code follows in the real world. Each chapter is designed to take your code base to the next level and to add to your skills. After completing the examples in this book you will have the tools necessary to build your own, high-quality games. Make the process of creating object-oriented 2D games more fun and more productive and get started on your game development journey.
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    Longitudinal analysis of energy metering data from non-domestic buildings.
    (2010) Brown, Neil; Wright, A. J.; Shukla, A.; Stuart, Graeme
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    Monitoring energy performance in local authority buildings.
    (De Montfort University, 2011) Stuart, Graeme
    Energy management has been an important function of organisations since the oil crisis of the mid 1970’s led to hugely increased costs of energy. Although the financial costs of energy are still important, the growing recognition of the environmental costs of fossil-fuel energy is becoming more important. Legislation is also a key driver. The UK has set an ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target of 80% of 1990 levels by 2050 in response to a strong international commitment to reduce GHG emissions globally. This work is concerned with the management of energy consumption in buildings through the analysis of energy consumption data. Buildings are a key source of emissions with a wide range of energy-consuming equipment, such as photocopiers or refrigerators, boilers, air-conditioning plant and lighting, delivering services to the building occupants. Energy wastage can be identified through an understanding of consumption patterns and in particular, of changes in these patterns over time. Changes in consumption patterns may have any number of causes; a fault in heating controls; a boiler or lighting replacement scheme; or a change in working practice entirely unrelated to energy management. Standard data analysis techniques such as degree-day modelling and CUSUM provide a means to measure and monitor consumption patterns. These techniques were designed for use with monthly billing data. Modern energy metering systems automatically generate data at half-hourly or better resolution. Standard techniques are not designed to capture the detailed information contained in this comparatively high-resolution data. The introduction of automated metering also introduces the need for automated analysis. This work assumes that consumption patterns are generally consistent in the short-term but will inevitably change. A novel statistical method is developed which builds automated event detection into a novel consumption modelling algorithm. Understanding these changes to consumption patterns is critical to energy management. Leicester City Council has provided half-hourly data from over 300 buildings covering up to seven years of consumption (a total of nearly 50 million meter readings). Automatic event detection pinpoints and quantifies over 5,000 statistically significant events in the Leicester dataset. It is shown that the total impact of these events is a decrease in overall consumption. Viewing consumption patterns in this way allows for a new, event-oriented approach to energy management where large datasets are automatically and rapidly analysed to produce summary meta-data describing their salient features. These event-oriented meta-data can be used to navigate the raw data event by event and are highly complementary to strategic energy management.
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    Moving beyond feedback: Energy behaviour and local engagement in the United Kingdom
    (2015-04) Bull, R.; Lemon, Mark; Everitt, Dave; Stuart, Graeme
    The energy savings potential within non-domestic buildings from behaviour change initiatives is well known. Energy efficiency measures can contribute to local, national and EU policy commitments on carbon reduction. Yet, research also shows behaviour change is anything but simple. No-where is this more evident that in local government where municipalities are expected to lead on carbon reduction initiatives whilst operating in challenging political landscapes. This paper reflects on a UK Research Council funded case study exploring the role of engagement in a UK municipality. Innovative feedback tools and user-engagement were developed in an effort to foster a collaborative approach to energy management. Findings from an analysis of a focus group and a set of semi-structured interviews show encouraging signs with regards to increased user-engagement and digital tools, but barriers remain with regards to the ‘real world’ implementation of innovative, and technologically grounded, approaches. These included a staff reduction programme amidst financial cuts, a risk-averse culture with regard to new technologies, and debate about where responsibilities lie with regards to energy management. While these findings were case specific they have implications for organisations contemplating how technology might support them in workplace engagement for reduced energy use.
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    Navigating multi-dimensional results from large parametric building simulation studies
    (2012) Stuart, Graeme; Korolija, Ivan; Marjanovic-Halburd, Ljiljana
    Advances in computing in recent years allow for many thousands of building energy simulations to be computed in the time previously required for a single simulation run. Software tools exist that allow for a single input file to be modified in a number of different ways to generate thousands of self-similar input files which can then be automatically simulated. The problem with this approach is not the simulation time but the time and effort required for the analysis of the vast set of results generated. Large, multi-dimensional result sets cannot be easily visualised as a whole. One approach is to view the results as a non-linear, interactive document in which only a small part of the results is viewed at any one time. With the addition of simple navigation to select the next sample to view, this approach allows the analyst to easily browse the large result set. More concretely, a one-dimensional sample (a selection of simulations which vary in only one aspect) can be selected from the dataset and visualised as a simple bar chart. Simple rules can then be applied to identify a collection of similar, one-dimensional samples for navigation. To examine this approach, a prototype tool was developed as a web-based application. The basis for this tool was a multi-parameter simulation study of office building energy consumption including 1,440 individual simulations varying across six dimensions including four building types, five building fabrics, three percentages of glazing, the inclusion of daylight control, two glazing types and six HVAC system types (including building load calculations). The tool included a basic report comparing a one-dimensional sample of results and a detailed report showing time series results for an individual case. Navigation panels allowed for simple traversal of the results set and to move between the two reports. The tool was found to be very useful for navigating the multi-dimensional data and the method is generic enough to be transferable to similar datasets.
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    Policy, ‘politicking’ and organisational culture – Barriers to engaging employees in behaviour change initiatives.
    (2015) Bull, R.; Everitt, Dave; Stuart, Graeme
    The energy savings potential within non-domestic buildings/commercial buildings from behaviour change initiatives is becoming well known. Low-cost interventions centred on simple energy efficiency behaviour changes have been shown to contribute to local, national and EU policy commitments to carbon reduction upwards of 10-20%. Yet, research also shows time and again that these straightforward behaviour changes can be anything but simple. Notwithstanding the psychological and social complexities inherent in behaviour, human behaviour in non-domestic buildings is affected by organisational culture, departmental ‘politiking’ and conflicting internal politics and business goals. No-where is this more evident that in local government where municipalities are expected to lead on carbon reduction initiatives whilst operating in changing political landscapes and juggling decreasing operational budgets with increasing expectations on public services. This paper presents findings from a UK Research Council funded ‘research in the wild’ case study exploring the role of digitally enabled engagement in a UK local authority. Innovative methods of combining the digital economy and user-engagement were trialled in an effort to increase user-interaction within their buildings and foster a more collaborative approach to energy management. A qualitative research approach was undertaken and findings are discussed from an analysis of a focus group and a set of semi-structured interviews with members of the user group and key actors within the municipality. Findings show that whilst there are positive signs with regards to the potential of increased user-engagement and ICT digital tools to facilitate behaviour change, barriers remain with regards to the implementation in ‘real world’ contexts of innovative approaches. For this particular organisation these included a staff reduction programme amidst financial cuts, a risk-averse culture to new technologies, and fundamental questions around where responsibilities lie with regards to energy management. Future innovations must take account of these wider issues in order to be ‘fit for purpose’ and achieve the energy reductions required.
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    Promoting energy awareness in the factory
    (2012) Greenough, R. M.; Vikhorev, K.; Stuart, Graeme; Brown, Neil
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    Rapid analysis of time series data to identify changes in electricity consumption patterns in UK secondary schools
    (2007-04-01) Fleming, P. D.; Ferreira, Vasco Guedes; Harris, Peter; Stuart, Graeme
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    Smart energy management for non-domestic buildings: Case studies of two local authorities in the UK
    (2017-06) Azzenoud, Marouane; Stuart, Graeme; Bull, R.; Lemon, Mark; Perry, D.
    The use of smart meters has increased since the beginning of the 21st century. The UK government, for example, has recently initiated a programme of rolling out 53 million smart electricity and gas meters for homes and small businesses by 2020 with the expectation that €20 billion will be saved on energy bills over the coming 15 years. The UK’s mass deployment of smart meters has resulted in Local Authorities experiencing additional costs from their installation in their non-domestic buildings, including the costs of new data collection and reporting systems. As a consequence, energy managers are increasingly being forced to consider the ideal frequency for collecting and reporting energy data, appropriate methods for processing that data and the need to rely on ‘real-time’ energy data when there are several other ways in which energy data can be accessed (bills, direct readings, etc.). Finally, what are the realistic expectations about the financial savings attributable to the installation of smart meters? This paper seeks to address these questions through two case studies which examine the effects of the smart meter roll-out programme on two separate UK Local Authorities, Northamptonshire County Council and Leicester City Council.