Understanding Energy Consumption at the Grundfos Dormitory Lab as Situated Practices

Transcription

1 Page 1 60 Working Paper 1: Understanding Energy Consumption at the Grundfos Dormitory Lab as Situated Practices Initial Qualitative Report 2013

2 Page 2 60 This study was carried out by the Alexandra Institute as part of the EcoSense and VPP4SGR projects. EcoSense aims at reducing environmental footprints through collective sensing, macroscopic analysis and feedback iniatives on community, organisational and individual level. The partners in the project are: Aarhus Universitet, Alexandra Instituttet, Grundfos, Insero Business, ScanEnergi, Project Zero, Aarhus Kommune, Københavns Kommune. The project is funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research. VPP4SGR (Virtual Power Plant for Smart grid Ready Buildings) aims at making residential buildings and its residents Smart Grid ready by involving the building s ability for demand response and activating residents in flexibility concepts. The partners in the project are: Aarhus Universitet, Alexandra Instituttet, Aarhus Kommune, Develco Product, (Dong Energy). VPP4SGR is funded by ForskEL.

3 Page 3 60 Document information Project Title Acronym Project Website Project Manager Virtual Power Plants for Smart Grid Ready Buildings and Customers VPP4SGR Peter harling Lykke Deliverable Number D2.1.1 Title Initial Qualitative Report 2013 Work package Number WP2 Title Analysis and Specifications Responsible Partner Alexandra Institute A/S Author(s) Name Mia Kruse Rasmussen Mia.kruse@alexandra.dk Name Johanne Mose Entwistle Johanne.mose@alexandra.dk Name Laura Lynggaard Nielsen Laura.nielsen@alexandra.dk Document Reviewer(s) Name Sergi Rotger Griful srgr@eng.au.dk Name Name Document Approver Version Control Version Date Author Comment

4 Page 4 60 Table of contents 1. Introduction The Context Grundfos Dormitory Lab EcoSense Virtual Power Plant for Smart Grid Ready Buildings and Customers (VPP4SGR) Method The Residents and the Dorm The Residents The Dorm as a Social Setting Flexible Community Different Levels of Engagement Virtual Community Community as a Value Different Articulations of Energy Awareness Taking Care of the Earth Moral Consumption and Embodied Practices Pragmatic Economising or Leaving it to Technology The Right to Consume and Inevitable Consumption Factors Affecting Energy Consumption The Contextual Wheel of Practice... 25

5 Page Understanding Consumption in the Dorm Time and Money Different Consumption Profiles A Holistic Perspective and Energy Choices The Non-Negotiability of (Some) Practices Flexibility Potential Cooking Laundry Indoor Climate Entertainment Lighting Potential Roads Ahead Money and Information Contextual Practice Change References Appendix 1: Informant Overview Appendix 2: Inventory of Electrical Devices in the Apartments... 58

6 Page Introduction This report summarizes the main findings of the interviews carried out with residents of the Grundfos Dormitory Lab as part of the qualitative baseline in the fall of 2013, and provides an analytical framework for understanding these insights in a wider context as socially situated practices. Where considered relevant, the report also includes findings from the first questionnaire sent out to residents in March 2013 to provide a more complete picture of what we know about the dorm and the residents at this point in time, thereby providing the best possible outset for defining and designing suitable interventions. In the first part of the report, we set the scene by giving an overview of who the residents are, what the Grundfos Dormitory Lab is, what the place means to the residents, as well as what they think about, and how they participate in the community at the dormitory lab. We also present different energy narratives to show how the residents think and talk about their energy consumption and how energy aware they consider themselves to be. After presenting these initial empirical insights we introduce the Contextual Wheel of Practice and use this to argue for an understanding of energy consumption at the dormitory lab as a socially situated practice, constituted and affected by interrelated factors such as norms, values, materiality, and infrastructure. Building on this practice theoretical foundation and empirical data from the interviews, we argue that daily practices in relation to energy consumption must be viewed not as isolated but as interrelated. Residents articulate their energy consumption in a holistic perspective rather than isolated activities. We conclude the report by discussing what the knowledge and framework presented in the report means in relation to the flexibility potential at the dormitory lab and our future interventions: the scope we have to impact change and the possible roads ahead. Included in the appendix is a more detailed overview of the informants, focussing on their attitude towards community and energy awareness (appendix 1), as well as an inventory of energy consuming devices in their apartments (appendix 2).

7 Page The Context 2.1. Grundfos Dormitory Lab The 12-storey Grundfos Dormitory is situated on the newly landscaped Aarhus Ø, and opened for residents in September The building is home to about 200 residents who live in 1-2 room apartments, each with a separate kitchen and bathroom. The building is also a living lab the Grundfos Dormitory Lab, equipped with more than 3000 sensors that measure temperature, humidity, CO 2, domestic water (cold and hot tap water) district heating water, and electricity usage. These sensors can provide unique knowledge about the activities of the residents, and how to they might optimize and reduce their energy consumption. The Alexandra Institute is a partner in two projects based at the dormitory lab, EcoSense and VPP4SGR. The knowledge about the residents that we present in this report feeds into both of these projects and should help guide the development of different initiatives. The following sections present a short description of the two projects EcoSense EcoSense is a strategic research project and joint development effort between universities, industrial partners, and municipalities. The overall objective of EcoSense is to develop novel collective sensing, macroscopic analysis and visualization methods for streams of semantically annotated measurement data from which climate impacts can be inferred. The EcoSense vision is to deliver to individuals and decision makers reliable eco-aware tools. Our hypothesis is that greater awareness of climate impacts will empower individuals, companies and institutions to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 5-10%. We apply these methods to a range of cases covering transportation, schools, and residential settings. In the Grundfos dormitory lab case, we correlate sensor data on energy consumption, humidity and CO2 with the knowledge we gain about the individuals (through interviews, questionnaires and workshops) to perform cross-disciplinary analysis and develop

8 Page 8 60 new concepts for how to reduce CO2 emissions. To learn more about the project and the different partners involved please visit the project webpage: Virtual Power Plant for Smart Grid Ready Buildings and Customers (VPP4SGR) The research project Virtual Power Plant for Smart Grid Ready Buildings and Customers uses the Grundfos Dormitory Lab in Aarhus as a full-scale energy lab. Until 2015, the researchers will log the energy use, humidity level, CO2 emissions and flow of water, heat and electricity at high frequency for each one of the 159 apartments. Furthermore, the VPP system will receive weather forecasts about temperature, wind conditions, and the direction of the sun. The goal is that this information automatically regulates the building's total heat and ventilation needs with the lowest possible energy use and the optimal comfort level for the residents, while providing flexibility to the electricity grid by means of DR. However, research has shown that the energy use in identical buildings may differ dramatically. Since the buildings are the same, the differences are attributed to the user behaviour in the buildings. Therefore, the proposed flexibility concepts will be developed and verified through user studies. You can learn more about the project at:

9 Page Method We carried out semi-structured interviews with 20 residents at the dorm over a period of 2 months from August to September Before the interviews, we prepared an interview guide outlining different themes to go through, covering the dorm, community, electric devices in the apartments, daily routines, and energy awareness. The interviews were done in Danish, and all the quotes included in the report have been translated from Danish to English by the authors. Using the semi-structured interview format gives us the opportunity to follow the informants in what they find interesting and relevant, and to elaborate further on those aspects, while still assuring that we cover all outlined themes. Thereby we maintain compatibility across interviews, but we also gain valuable knowledge about how the residents ascribe meaning to their own lives, as we are letting them tell us about the things they find most important (Kvale 1996). One of the things to be aware of when using interviews to gain knowledge about people s lives is that the interview responses are people s retrospective reflections. There is often a difference between what people say they do, and what they actually do. To try to get them to relate their thoughts on our questions as much as possible to their daily routines, we used different tools: 1. We had them draw pictures of their apartments and plot in the different energy consuming devices they had 2. We had them talk us through an ordinary day, step by step 3. We showed them visual representations of their energy consumption (compared to the average consumption at the dormitory lab) By contextualising the interviews in this way, we managed to get quite detailed information about their different practices. We also gained insight into people s own understandings of why their consumption looks in a certain way and how they feel about this information that will be valuable in both designing and implementing interventions.

10 Page All the information in the report has been anonymised. Room numbers have been removed and informant names have been changed to make it impossible to trace back the information to individual respondents.

11 Page The Residents and the Dorm 4.1. The Residents All of our informants like living at the dorm. When asked why they chose to apply for an apartment here, they state the location of the dorm and the fact that they have their own kitchen and bathroom as determining factors. Most of them also applied for other dorms that lived up to these criteria, and they might as well have ended up in one of those places instead. None of the residents emphasize the green profile or the sensor technology in the building as something that made them choose this dorm over other dorms. When it comes to what is good about living at the Grundfos Dorm, some point mainly to the architecture and location of the building, whereas others emphasize the social life at the dorm. The ones emphasising the building and the apartments are the ones less engaged in the social life at the dorm, while the very social informants attach more importance to the social community. To sum up, the residents, not surprisingly, seem to be very average young people. They care about having their own space, about living close to the city, about having a good social life, about saving money, and being able to spend time on the things they care about. This preliminary overall profile of the people living at the dorm is consistent with the one we got from the questionnaire last year, in which respondents stated price, location, and community as primary reasons for choosing the Grundfos Dorm. No one mentioned energy or environmental considerations. As we go on to describe the different topics in the report, a fuller picture of the residents will be drawn. In addition, appendix 1 gives a more detailed description of the individual informants in relation to community and energy awareness.

12 Page The Dorm as a Social Setting The residents at the Grundfos Dorm have various motives for choosing to live there, and also highlight different aspects when asked what is good about it. Some residents emphasised the social life, whereas others mainly view the dorm as a way of getting an apartment in the city centre at a reasonable price. Regardless of these differences, the fact that the place is conceptualised as a dorm not just an apartment building seems to influence the expectations people have of what it will be like to live here. On the one hand, people ascribe to this understanding of a dorm as a very social place where you meet new people and do fun things together. On the other hand, there is also a feeling that the Grundfos Dorm differs somewhat from a traditional dorm by not being as social: I think I imagined that a lot of things would be going on all the time. So every time you got home you would be socially active and spend time with other residents. That you would almost never be by yourself But that is not the way it was. Interviewer: Were you disappointed about that? No, it was actually quite alright. There was so much going on at school so I did not really have the energy to engage more. (Mikkel) When constructing a building, the people designing it have a certain vision of how it is to be used. This vision can be called a script. The script outlines the possible uses of the building, thereby framing the actions of the people living there. The script, however, does not determine the way the building is inhabited; there is an on-going process between the building and its residents in which the environment there is being shaped (Akrich 1992).

13 Page The Grundfos Dorm is a place that implies both sociality and privacy. It is conceptualised as a dorm, which implies a great deal of community. But at the same time, the apartments also work as individual units, and some residents clearly state using them as such. Calling the place a dorm evokes certain images of what life there is like, placing it in the same category as more traditional dorms even though the building infrastructure scripts another type of behaviour that is more individualistic. For the residents, including the ones who do not socialize the dorm way, the building can never be just an apartment building, even if they describe it as not being a real dorm : It s this sense of security in knowing that you are surrounded by equals. So if you have any problems you can just ask someone for help. In that way it is not like an apartment. You share problems and help each other out. (Kasper) Community is articulated in a certain way in this particular social setting; something that is special to the dorm. The dorm concept becomes a frame for the narratives the residents form about their lives there and for the social community. Even the ones not particularly engaged in the social activities at the dorm see the dorm as something unique and emphasise a sense of community at the dorm as something different from what you find in other places. 5. Flexible Community As described in the informant overview (appendix 1), it varies to what degree the residents participate actively in the social life at the dorm. Some prefer to just be by themselves when they are at home, and spend time with their fellow students or other friends outside the dorm. Others only talk to fellow residents when participating in parties and use the common room sporadically, while some spend time with other residents on a daily basis. This division of the residents into three distinct social groupings with varying engagement in the social life at the dorm corresponds to the analysis of the questionnaire in which three groups were also identified. What is common across these three discrete levels of engagement is that they all subscribe to an ideal of community, and that they want this community to be flexible.

14 Page For the majority of our informants, getting their own kitchen and bathroom was critical for why they chose to apply for an apartment at the Grundfos Dorm. Besides having full control and autonomy over their facilities, a central aspect of this choice is the freedom to choose when to be social and when to be by yourself. So even though there is quite a strong sense of community at the dorm, it always takes place on the individuals terms: I spend a lot of time at school during the day, so when I come home if I don t feel like being social I can just go down here and cook or whatever. But if I feel like seeing somebody I can just go up to the common room. There is always the choice of either or. It s not like regular dorms where you have to be social all the time. (Sara) This choice is enabled by the design of the building, where everyone has their own apartment fulfilling their practical needs, and the common room is located at the top floor where only a few residents pass through naturally. This makes it easy to avoid contact with other residents when desired. Opting out of the social life at the dorm is easy, whereas participating in it takes active effort. Secondly, a lot of our informants value and guard the opportunity to be by themselves when they are at home and like the fact that you can choose to be social or relax by yourself, according to mood: I just think it is really nice that if you feel like being social, you can be social, and when you don t, you can just go to your own apartment to relax. I really appreciate that. (Eva) In this perspective, the home is a base where the residents go to recharge and do just what they want. Even for the people belonging to the very social group it is important to have the freedom of choice concerning social engagements Different Levels of Engagement The residents personal narratives of life at the dorm differ quite a bit, depending on the individual perception of what a dorm is or should be, and on their social relations at the dorm. A large part of the residents are not very actively involved in the social community at the dorm, and some of them feel a certain need to justify this. In their understanding, part of

15 Page living at a dorm should be having a social life there. However, it has either taken too much effort to become part of the social group, or it is expressed as a choice: they do not feel like investing time and energy in the dorm community and would rather spend it on their studies, jobs, hobbies, family, and the friends they already have. Well, it could be fun to be part of something, but now that I have chosen to get my own place I also feel like it is not the most important thing to me I still see the people from where I used to live, so I kind of feel like I have enough people in my life. (Mie) Some also express the view that the Grundfos Dorm is not a real dorm, meaning that it is not like traditional dorms where people share a kitchen, etc. Designating the dorm in this way places the causal explanation with the building rather than the individual, thereby making it more acceptable for the residents not to be actively engaged in social activities. The thing about more traditional dorms where you share kitchen and things like that is that it might be easier to get a strong community because you have to see each other on a daily basis. Whereas here I really like having my own kitchen and bathroom, and I would not want to live in an old fashioned dorm, but it does have the consequence that it might be a bit harder to establish a strong community. (Thomas) Others express their non-involvement as a more natural matter. They just do not feel like they fit in with the others or do not feel drawn to the dorm sociality, but they are fine with it, and they do not really give thought to whether they should be socially involved or not. The people who are up there are very social. And that is fine. I just don t have the need to get involved like that. So then I just do something down here (in the apartment) instead. (Mette) There is a crowd of about 30 people who hang out in the common room and take part in each other s daily lives, watch TV, do communal eating, drink beer, bake cakes, etc. This group is also greatly represented in the residents board and the party planning committee. Some of the people belonging to this group express a wish to have a more general and inclusive social community at the dorm, but many of the other residents feel that the clique is occupying the common room, which the clique is also aware of themselves. They state that they are trying to involve more people through different initiatives and efforts to get new people to come to the parties, but it is still the same crowd that hangs out in the common room on a daily basis. When asked why it is important to them to get more people involved, one of the answers is that this is the way it is supposed to be at a dorm:

16 Page For every party we try to improvise to see if there is some new way to get people to join. We really want people to join, because we want to get to know them. Interviewer: Why do you think it is important that as many as possible join the events? Because I think that is the way a dorm works. When you choose to live at a dorm it is more social than living in an apartment. But because we have these individual apartments it is completely up to you if you want to be social or not. I just think there is a certain feel down here and that is really cool. (Kristina) 5.2. Virtual Community The Grundfos Dorm community has a strong virtual manifestation: Facebook. Whereas the common room is mostly used by a limited group of people, the Grundfos Dorm Facebook group is basically used by everyone. Most people get notifications from the group, some create and reply to posts, others just read the posts, and yet again others only look at the wall sporadically. The wall of the Facebook group is used for a variety of purposes: asking questions, posting social events (planned and spontaneous), asking for things you need (e.g. an egg), searching for things you have left somewhere or for the owner of something you found (e.g. clothes in the laundry room), sharing news (for instance the elevator and big tumble dryer break down quite often), etc. There are also smaller groups for different social activities (e.g. baking, knitting, or drinking alcohol). The members of these groups are the ones more active in the social life in general, and they seem to value having these separate groups where they feel it is more appropriate to post events or questions in a more specific setting. Then our dinner club has a designated group, and then there are a few of us who are very social who also have another group. So I think I would post it there instead, or call somebody, or ask my neighbour. (Morten) As each member of the group can choose the level of involvement in the group (or subgroups), this fits very well with how the social interaction generally takes place. It allows residents to feel like part of a community even with very little effort, thereby adding to the

17 Page sense of the dorm as a place where people are committed to each other and help each other out: Somebody wrote asking what the procedure for renting the common room was, and I was familiar with the process because I had already rented the room, so I could write him back right away how to do it. That is nice; I think that we are connected to each other in that way. Interviewer: Why is that good? Because then you are not alone with your problems. It is not like living in an apartment where you don t know your neighbours. Here we have a community in the sense that we help each other out. So there is a bit of community after all. (Mikkel) 5.3. Community as a Value Community is seen as a core value for the residents at the dorm. This is partly influenced by their perceptions of what a dorm is or should be, but also emphasizing the uniqueness of the Grundfos Dorm. There is a strong ideal of community, but it needs to be a flexible community where engagement is a choice, and levels can be turned up or down depending on time and energy. As many of the residents also mention, having their own kitchen and bathroom means that the community does not come as naturally as in other dorms. As a result, the residents feel they have to work harder to establish and maintain social connections. This could be viewed as a disadvantage. However, the residents actually like it this way. They are aware of the costs, but they value the benefits more (as Thomas expresses in the quote on page 6). Many of the residents view the Grundfos Dorm as more of an apartment building than a dorm, but that does not necessarily mean that they do not value their small interactions with other residents. It gives a sense of security that everyone shares the same problems, and some have also exchanged keys and help each other with practical problems. Because it is nice to have a sense of community at the dorm. You want someone to go to if you need to hang something on the wall, or if you are bored one night or what do I know It is always good to have a circle of acquaintances where you are. It is nice to have someone you trust to give your key to so that you can go to them if you lock yourself out one day. That s important. (Mette)

18 Page Knowing that they are surrounded by peers gives the residents a feeling of community even if they do not actively take part in the social life. This sense of community is valued and viewed as something unique to the dorm. I really like living here. Not because I am particularly active socially. I don t participate in events, and I don t know that many people here, but just the fact that we are a lot of students living here gives a sense of community. (Liv) This strong presence of community as both a value and a practice seems to be a strong driver for engagement and it is something we should also take into account in our interventions to engage the residents in a community that is both flexible and meaningful.

19 Page Different Articulations of Energy Awareness Another interesting perspective that stood out during our analysis is the different ways in which energy consumption and energy awareness are articulated. The informants use very different energy narratives to describe what is at stake when they consume or think about energy, and to explain if and how they minimize their consumption. It is important to stress that these different narratives were only articulated when we asked the residents very directly to tell us about how and when they think about energy. None of the informants brought up the theme of energy by themselves. The narratives can be seen as post-rationalizations. It is a way of trying to explain behaviour or choices that may not be very intentional or rational. The narratives do not necessarily have any spill over effect on their actual behaviour. It is, however, still interesting for us to explore these narratives further as they give an indication of values and attitudes among the residents when it comes to energy. Therefore, it will be very interesting to further investigate the relationship between these values and energy behaviour by looking at the correlation between these articulations and the actual consumption patterns observable through sensor data or scenario observations Taking Care of the Earth For some of our informants, reflections about saving energy are expressed as directly linked to concerns about the planet, about wanting to do something for the greater good, and showing social responsibility. Because I feel like we owe it to future generations to take care of the earth, so they have something to live off and on. (Stine) It is not so much about saving money. It is more from an environmental perspective. There is no reason why I should use energy when I don t really need it. (Lise) To these residents, energy is not only about themselves and their needs. It is something that has to do with an overall societal awareness. There is a strong link to identity in the sense that these people also categorise themselves as energy aware and like to see themselves

20 Page (and be viewed by others) as the kind of people who care about others and are socially responsible Moral Consumption and Embodied Practices Some informants express concern about their energy consumption because they believe that consuming too much energy is wrong. This can sometimes cause them to feel guilty about their choices and habits, if they feel like they are exceeding the limits of what is normal or reasonable. Our informants have a difficult time explaining what makes them feel this way just that this type of consumption has greater implications than simply the monetary costs. I have bad habits. Especially when it comes to water and things like that. For instance when I do the dishes I actually leave the water running, and you are not supposed to do that. Because it s wrong! (Lise) This type of moral rationale often seems to be very much linked to upbringing. Many informants report having been told when growing up to turn off the lights when leaving the room or not take too long showers. This knowledge has been internalised and become embodied practices. These practices are not really something our informants are reflexive about when they do it. They do it more or less automatically, but when they are asked to elaborate further they quite consistently trace this type of behaviour back to upbringing: I think I am pretty aware. I always switch off the lights. But I also think it is something I have been taught from home and now it is just a habit. (Mie) 6.3. Pragmatic Economising or Leaving it to Technology Whereas the moral attitude is linked to norms and understandings of what the right thing to do is, there is an equally present articulation with a more pragmatic tone. Here, it is about a general thrift or prioritisation; it is silly to spend too much energy because it is viewed as a waste of resources. This standpoint can be regarding electricity, money, and other resources.

21 Page There is no sign of guilt about consuming; you just should not spend more than you need of anything. Interviewer: When do you think about energy? Peter: When I walk out the door and turn off all the lights Interviewer: Why do you do that? Peter: Well, it is just money out of the window that is stupid. I don t get anything out of it, There is no comfort in it or anything like that, that s why. Otherwise I would not do it. This informant would not want to make compromises to save energy. He prioritizes the good life, is willing to pay for comfort, and does not really care how much his energy consumption costs. He is willing to pay the cost to uphold the life style he wants (see quote on page 18), but he still feels he is aware not to spend energy where it is not needed. Another view of energy awareness that resembles the pragmatic economising is that it should not take up too much of your time. A way to be relatively unaware and still conserve to a certain degree is to take some conscious decisions, and set up your technology in such a way that it uses as little energy as possible. The people who draw on this narrative are technologically interested, and it is a bit of a hobby for them to buy new gadgets and see how much energy they can save: In principle I don t think you should compromise to save energy. You should not have less heat or light and live in cold darkness. But on the other hand I think you should choose smart solutions to help you consume less. I think it is really cool that new technology can help you save energy and in that way benefit the environment. (Thomas) There is still the feeling that we should not give up privileges to save energy, but at the same time the technical interest in smart solutions contributes to an optimization of energy consumption without having to change behaviour or make compromises The Right to Consume and Inevitable Consumption Viewing energy consumption as an individual choice, some informants point out that the lifestyle they like to uphold just takes a certain amount of energy. They would rather pay extra for energy than compromise their lifestyle. This can be more or less distinct; whereas

22 Page some informants do not want to make any compromises, others prioritise certain things that they do not want to sacrifice or that they feel like they deserve. Some things can be more important than saving energy, and people have a certain limit for what they think would be cutting down too much. I feel that if I shower for more than 10 minutes then I have to be done because otherwise it is silly, because I really don t need that. But I want to decide for myself. I don t want to feel guilty about it because after all I am the one paying for it. (Stine) As energy consumption is a part of most of people s everyday practices, people also express a feeling that it is out of their hands or that it would take too much effort to do something about it. I think it works quite well actually. I save where I can, but I don t want to bother if it gets too complicated. It is nice to be able to turn on the TV without having to put in the plug every time. So when I feel like it would be too much of a hassle I just don t. (Camilla) Consuming energy is an inevitable part of the lives people lead. Generally they seem to express the view that what they do is more or less necessary, definitely normal, and not something luxurious. Even the informants with a high energy consumption compared to their neighbours (based on sensor data) do not feel like they use more energy than they have to: I don t think I can use any less. The TV is not on and this one (the computer) has to be on. That s just the way it is. (Lars) This spoken by the informant with the second-highest consumption according to the consumption data using more than 2,5 times as much energy as the one with the lowest measured consumption. There might be a number of different reasons for this, but it is interesting that there seems to be a clear tendency to articulate your own consumption as normal, making perceptions of how much normal is a somewhat self-defined variable, especially as long as you do not have the opportunity to compare your own consumption with others. What these different narratives tell us is that people articulate energy awareness in very different ways, but it does not give us any insight into how this relates to people s actual consumption patterns. What will be really interesting is to look into how these articulations

23 Page relate to energy consumption and everyday practices (if at all). In the following section, we shift our focus from narratives to practices, and how practices affect energy consumption. We argue that while narratives might not have a one-to-one correlation with energy consumption, practices do. Practices influence consumption in profound ways, and as we will argue in the following section, understanding the different practices that have energy consumption as a consequence requires a holistic approach: viewing these as a set of interrelated and complex practices situated in a particular social setting and affected by various factors.

24 Page Factors Affecting Energy Consumption Energy consumption is a consequence of our daily behaviour, so if we want to change energy consumption, one way is to change behaviour. And if you want to change or shape behaviour, you have to understand it first. Our understanding of behaviour and what shapes it is based on a practice theoretical approach. There are multiple existing definitions of practice (Bourdieu 1977, Reckwitz 2002, Shove 2003, Warde 2005), but what they all have in common is that they move their focus from looking at the individual as the centre of analysis, towards understanding the organisation and reorganisation of shared activities and routines (Pierce, J. et al. 2013). While psychology and behavioural economics focus on individual behaviour and motivation in their analysis, the practice theoretical approach will look at practices as complex bundles of activities that invariably involve human (and non-human) participation, but are not constituted solely by or from human intentionality and action (Schatzki 1996; Reckwitz 2002; Shove 2003 in ibid.). In other words, what we do is not only shaped by motivation and values but also affected by factors like structure and materiality. Like Kirsten Gram-Hanssen we understand practices as collectively shared structures of know-how, institutionalized knowledge, engagements, and technologies, but there should also be room for individual differences and for seeing rational knowledge input and aspects of attitudes as part of the explanation of practices (Gram-Hanssen 2009: 155). This means that our daily practices are shaped and constituted by many different factors of which the current focus of analysis in psychology and behavioural economics namely individual behaviour, rationality and motivations are only a part. This doesn't mean that we do not look at individual behaviour, but the individuals are interesting to look at as carriers of practices (Schatzki 1996 in Gram-Hanssen 2009) instead of as rational, free, intentional agents of behaviour. Furthermore, in the context of understanding energy consumption it is important to state that we see energy consumption not as a practice in itself, but as an inevitable consequence of or element in different interrelated everyday practices. Inspired by a practice theoretical approach to understanding energy consumption and insights from empirical studies of everyday life we have developed the following approach and model that bridges

25 Page insights from the different disciplines in trying to account for the different factors affecting energy consumption The Contextual Wheel of Practice The 'Contextual Wheel of Practice' shown in the figure below is a graphical compilation of different definitions of the practice theoretical approach. Furthermore, it is inspired by the analytical concept of Socio-Technical Systems (Kjerulff Petersen 2011). But it also adds to the current understanding by encompassing levels or factors that are not explicitly mentioned by the definitions of practice above. The model becomes a graphical outline of how practice theory attempts to mediate between structure and agency, the human and non-human, and the concrete and abstract factors that shape or constitute our daily practices. The four quadrants are: 1) Societal structure 2) Infrastructure 3) Materiality 4) Values and Knowledge.

26 Page The four quadrants deal with different 'groupings' of factors: 1) Societal Structure and 2) Infrastructure deal with the structural factors that shape our practices, such as norms, institutions, legislation on the one hand and distribution and production of energy on the other. These two quadrants contain the structures that will often be shared by a group of people, whose lives will be structured by shared factors. The actor level or the individual factors that shape our practices are 3) Materiality, such as things, technologies, and apparatuses in particular when we try to understand energy consumption, but also e.g. architecture, and 4) Values and Knowledge, which are personal and internalised, but also very much grounded in and affected by shared culture. Furthermore, the Contextual Wheel of Practice divides our factors into two other groupings; Infrastructure and Near Materiality cover the material and very concrete group of fac-

27 Page tors that shape our practices Societal Structure and Values and Knowledge entails the group of 'human' factors that shape our practices on different levels. Thus the Contextual Wheel of Practice also mediates and encompasses factors from both the very concrete and the very abstract realms as significant factors that both constitute and help us understand the practices that have energy consumption as their consequence. The four quadrants are highly interdependent, such that e.g. the state of infrastructure will very much rely on the state of institutions and legislation, and legislation will depend on values and knowledge of the individual, but also on e.g. technological advances. The Contextual Wheel of Practice helps us see what shapes practices and thus how changes in practices can occur through changes in any of the four quadrants. Having said this, many factors are in play when it comes to shaping our behaviour and because we also argue that the different factors are interrelated and don't just affect our practice, but also each other, the introduction of change will never be a simple cause and effect process. Furthermore, introducing changes in one quadrant may not have the intended effect, because the practice in mind may have been more significantly affected and structured by elements from other quadrants.

28 Page Understanding Consumption in the Dorm 8.1. Time and Money In the interviews, time and money are two central focus points in the way all residents describe their lives, and the way they frame what is possible or desirable to them. They are all students with limited budgets, and they express money as a central concern to them. When talking to them explicitly about energy consumption, the economic aspect is always rather prevalent, and energy consumption is definitely not something they enjoy spending money on. It is, however, uncertain whether money is actually what affects them the most in relation to their energy behaviour, or if it is just the parameter easiest to describe. Another major issue is time. The residents at the dorm lead active, busy lives, trying to juggle studies, part-time jobs, exercise, hobbies, and friends. They are very engaged in the different projects that they undertake, and are very aware of how they spend their time. As most of them live alone, we could make the assumption that it would be easy for them to be flexible and move around different activities, such as cooking. However, it turns out they do not feel that cooking is a flexible activity. Cooking cannot just be moved a couple of hours without it affecting a range of other activities. The idea of rearranging the schedule of activities to change energy consumption is articulated as unacceptable, and our informants seem somewhat reluctant to take on additional activities in relation to moving or reducing their energy consumption if it is something that will cost them time Different Consumption Profiles The residents at the Grundfos Dormitory Lab live in practically identical apartments, but still their consumption patterns vary. These differences might to some extent be traced back to the different values and levels of energy awareness, but this is only part of the explanation. Building on the description of the Contextual Wheel of Practice, the residents have a shared infrastructure and societal structure but different values and near materiality, which contribute to the different consumption patterns we see.

29 Page As described in the section Different Articulations of Energy Awareness, respondents articulate their energy behaviour and energy awareness in many different ways, ranging from taking care of the earth for future generations to I have a right to consume or consumption is inevitable. They also have different appliances and devices in their apartments, as well as different practices and routines that contribute to their individual consumption profile A Holistic Perspective and Energy Choices One of the central insights from the interviews is that people tend to see (or at least articulate) their practices in relation to energy consumption in a holistic perspective. Using energy is a necessary part of making their daily lives work, and within this frame our informants allow themselves to consume energy on the things they value, while saving in the areas less important to them. A consequence of understanding energy consumption through a practice theoretical approach such as the Contextual Wheel of Practice is the inevitable shift from looking at people as energy consumers, to looking at people as human beings who engage in different 1 Appendix 2 gives an overview of the equipment in each of the apartments

30 Page practices that have energy consumption as a consequence. In their daily lives, the residents have all made different choices, both consciously and unconsciously, about when to be energy aware. These energy choices are very much related to their daily routines and what they value in their lives and to which practices they consciously or unconsciously choose to prioritise to make their daily lives work and maintain their quality of life. Some might want to take a hot shower for 20 minutes every morning but never turn on the oven or the TV, and others might use the oven every morning to heat up rolls and leave the TV on for most of the day. What matters to the residents is the overall consumption and whether this is considered reasonable and normal. Liv, for instance, boils an egg on her stove every morning. She knows this uses energy and that she could boil more eggs at once to save energy, but she does not do that: I boil an egg on my stove every morning. I know I could boil more eggs at the time to save energy, but I just don t. I know pretty well how to do things correctly from an energy perspective, but I might not always do it! My overall consumption is not too high to begin with so I feel like I can allow myself an egg in the morning. (Liv) As Liv clearly states, this is not about lack of knowledge, and more information probably would not make her change her behaviour. She knows that it would be better to boil more eggs at once, and it could be done quite easily, but this would not give her the same value, so she chooses to do it anyways because it is something she values and she feels that it is balanced out by the fact that she considers her overall consumption to be low The Non-Negotiability of (Some) Practices Energy consumption and CO 2 footprints can seem to be very far removed from people s everyday lives. It is the by-product of a range of daily practices that are valued and prioritised differently by the residents but it is not something that they think about explicitly on a daily basis. It is one thing to know what the correct behaviour is from an energy perspective, it is another to know what is acceptable to me in my daily life in relation to my different practices and values, and also what is possible for me from a material and infrastructural perspective.

31 Page This is crucial to understand when we wish to engage residents in different interventions. We need to make it possible for them to choose the areas that are acceptable to them, involving factors they will be willing and able to change. The ones less energy aware, like Peter, feel like they have the right to consume energy and do not want to compromise their comfort in order to save: In some ways I am quite a hedonist, as long as I have the money and the means I would rather feel good than worry about saving and compromise my comfort. I never understood why, of course there is a limit to everything, but why should I save and compromise my own satisfaction? I just want to feel good rather than worry about if it costs me 5 kr. or 30 kr. (Peter) Energy consumption is not really something he thinks about in his daily life, and he does not feel guilty about that. He expects it to be there when he needs it, and is willing to pay the cost. But even the ones with very green values, like Stine, have several other concerns/values affecting their behaviour, and we need to take these into account in order to develop sustainable solutions that can help reduce their CO 2 footprint. Stine uses her oven every morning to heat up rolls. She takes them straight from the freezer and puts them into the oven; because that is the way she likes them. When asked about why she does this instead of using a toaster or let them thaw out during the night, she argues that from an environmental perspective it actually makes sense to continue this practice instead of buying a toaster, because the production and distribution of the toaster would entail CO 2 emissions greater than the ones caused by heating rolls in the oven every morning. This justification, however, is probably not what she tells herself every morning. Her doing this is more about her valuing this particular practice and prioritising to spend energy to obtain it (and maybe not really seeing an alternative). Heating up the rolls in the oven can be understood as a non-negotiable practice (Strengers 2011). Stine is not willing to change this practice (even though it results in substantial energy consumption, and she is considering herself to be energy aware.) She justifies it with an explanation about it making sense in the bigger picture. That may or may not be true, but the bottom line is that this is something she will continue doing, despite the consumption it entails because it gives her great value.

32 Page There is an element to this practice of wanting to feel good and comfortable in your own home. As described earlier, the home (apartment) is viewed as a secure base where residents go to relax and recharge: You feel a bit guilty about turning up the heat, but on the other hand you don t want to feel like you have to freeze your ass off every time you get home. So usually I end up with some sort of compromise where I turn up the heat a bit but I also put on extra clothes or crawl under a blanket. (Stine) The different practices that have energy consumption as a consequence can all be seen as part of a balancing act of making their daily lives work and maintaining a certain quality of life. In some cases, residents are not willing to give up or change the practices associated with different daily routines because they have great value to them. In relation to these non-negotiable practices our focus in an intervention could be to help them obtain these services in a more sustainable way or to target other negotiable practices instead. What these negotiable and non-negotiable practices might be to any one particular individual will be different, but we argue that it will be depend on the value and interrelatedness of the given practices. Based on the interviews, a fair conclusion could be that laundry is more negotiable than cooking. This, however, does not necessarily make it easier to change. As we will show in the following section, laundry is more strongly regulated from a structural perspective and therefore difficult to change. It is important that we try to understand these differences because they affect the range of options we have to impact change. In the next section, we will elaborate further on what this understanding means in terms of flexibility potential and our potential future interventions.