Reduce Building Energy Use Through Occupant Engagement

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

[email protected] or

[email protected]

• Look for our email with a link to the webinar recording

• Look for future webinars on our website:

www.pulseenergy.com