When Space Heating Becomes Digitalized: Investigating Competencies for Controlling Smart Home Technology in the Energy-Efficient Home

Simon Peter Aslak Kondrup Larsen*, Kirsten Gram-Hanssen

*Kontaktforfatter

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

26 Citationer (Scopus)
64 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In the near future, renewable energy sources (RES) will make up an increasing share of energy production in the district heating grid, implying that utilities must enable energy flexibility in order to compensate for the intermittent nature of RES. Current initiatives rely on smart approaches, encouraging a flexible energy demand by integrating various demand-side-management technologies. While praised for their ‘smart’ capabilities, smart home technologies have also been criticized for not meeting their potential in terms of savings and flexibility. This paper examines space-heating practices in everyday life in 16 Danish households. The study relies on qualitative in-depth interviews and ‘show and tell’ tours within these homes. Results show how space-heating practices are reconfigured by embodied knowledge related to respectively space-heating and use of smart technology. This implies that occupants’ adaption to smart home technology is reconfigured by their previous experiences as well as the meanings they ascribed to their practices. By showing the different ways in which occupants ‘get to know’ smart home technology, results highlight forms of embodied knowledge which occupants habitually draw on when they heat their homes. Occupants learn and carry competences for conducting space heating throughout life, and interventions aimed at enabling a flexible energy demand need to consider this. As smart home technology is integrated in homes, interventions should consider embodied knowledge as part of occupants’ competences for controlling smart home technology, as this will impact the reconfiguration of (new) space heating practices.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer6031
TidsskriftSustainability
Vol/bind12
Udgave nummer15
Antal sider21
ISSN2071-1050
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 27 jul. 2020

Bibliografisk note

This article belongs to the Special Issue The Changing Role of End-Users in the Consumption and Production of Residential Energy.

Emneord

  • District heating
  • Smart home technology
  • Social practice theory
  • Energy consumption
  • Energy flexibility
  • Social theory

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