Effective or ephemeral? The role of energy information dashboards in changing occupant energy behaviors

Building energy use research has largely been focused on technological performance despite growing evidence that human behavior has an equally significant role (Sovacool, 2014) [34]. This paper aims to address this by examining how the role of real-time information affects building occupant attitudes and behaviors toward energy use. Four buildings located on four different community college campuses in Illinois were outfitted with a centrally located graphic display of the building's real-time energy use (an energy dashboard) and implemented a 6-week energy behavior change campaign. Intervention efficacy was tested with an online survey that was distributed to each campus population before and after the intervention. Pre-post analysis, comparison between exposed and unexposed populations, and cross-campus comparisons were then conducted. Our findings show that although the interventions resulted in significant energy savings (7-10% in electricity and 50% decrease in natural gas), differences in student and faculty/staff energy attitudes or behaviors proved insignificant. Post-intervention longitudinal interviews with building facility managers, however, showed that energy dashboards improved their ability to detect system faults that led to their implementation of energy-saving building adjustments. While energy dashboards can be effective at improving facility management approaches, they are less useful for measurably affecting occupant attitudes and behaviors.