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A technology-aided social marketing approach for domestic hot water consumption reduction in a multi-unit residential building

University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office

The purpose of this project was to examine the effectiveness of a behavioral change pilot program aimed to reduce hot water consumption in the Clement's Green residential building located at UBC Vancouver campus. The project was supported by an online communication tool provided by BuiltSpace Technologies and hot water sub-metering provided by Enerpro Systems. During this project, a new method for providing consumption information to building occupants was pilot tested as a means to stimulate a reduction in hot water consumption. This strategy was underpinned with a behavioral change program following the steps suggested by Doug McKenzie-Mohr [1]. The pilot was launched with a group of nine volunteers who live in the building. Hot water consumption data was analyzed before and after the deployment of the strategy. There is not enough information to observe statistical evidence of a reduction in hot water consumption due to high variability in the after-deployment dataset. An extension of the after-deployment stage is suggested to overcome this lack of evidence. Nevertheless, participants agreed that the improvement in availability of consumption information from this pilot was useful to them in regards to understanding their hot water usage and ultimately, this could lead to a reduction in consumption. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

University of British Columbia. CEEN 596; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108466

Applied Science, Faculty of

Graduate

DSpace