User behaviour and perception as drivers for lighting energy efficiency and performance gap reduction in higher education

• Main Author: van Someren, Katherine Louise
• Published: University of Reading 2018
• Subjects: 710
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.741116

User behaviour and perception are key drivers for lighting energy efficiency and performance gap reduction in higher education. Changing the way we conduct post occupancy evaluation to include retrofits and understanding users' needs more thoroughly will ultimately lead to a greater reduction in CO, emissions. A pilot interview study was carried out with University of Reading Whiteknights campus with a total of 6 staff and students in 2014 and developed into a main interview study with 9 academic staff in 2015. During 2014 to 2016 data loggers were deployed for six months to 10 single occupancy offices, 13 classrooms and 14 corridor areas in 3 buildings on campus that were used for both teaching and office space. The data from the loggers was used to calculate hours of lighting use and occupancy, time of day analysis and a prompt study. The findings from interviews revealed that lighting control design in classrooms lacked consistency across the real estate portfolio; office occupants felt their spaces were neglected and; the piecemeal upgrades contributed to their frustrations of being unable to control their lighting effectively. Post occupancy evaluation in single occupancy offices, classrooms and corridors was carried out using environmental loggers to quantify the levels of hours of wasted lighting use for performance gap analysis relating this to external factor. and CO, emission savings. Significant hours of wasted lighting were found in all three task areas in the three study buildings. Interesting findings in the office study found that lighting use and occupancy patterns varied by both building and size of office. To combat this prevalent lighting waste continuous commissioning and verification were suggested as practical measures to reduce the CO, emissions and energy consumption and improve user satisfaction. Finally the prompt study exploring office occupant's habits was found to link light switching behaviours on exit to the time of day and suggested the corridor lights being off influenced the action of switching off lights in the office. This thesis contributes to knowledge by providing new significant findings in both post occupancy evaluation and human behaviour in light switching.