Everyday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibility
In managing the high electrical energy demand during the peak early evening hours in UK domestic buildings it is critical to understand how household practices are coordinated in relation to resources used. In this paper an interdisciplinary group of researchers from sociology, environmental science...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Conference item |
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2016
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| _version_ | 1826273826309144576 |
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| author | Topouzi, M Grunewald, P Gershuny, J Harms, T |
| author_facet | Topouzi, M Grunewald, P Gershuny, J Harms, T |
| author_sort | Topouzi, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | In managing the high electrical energy demand during the peak early evening hours in UK domestic buildings it is critical to understand how household practices are coordinated in relation to resources used. In this paper an interdisciplinary group of researchers from sociology, environmental science, engineering and health present an account of their methodological approach and the reasoning behind it, along with some evidence of the impact different household everyday activities and routines have on electricity demand. It presents an innovative methodological approach that brings together Time-use and Energy-use research in households by combining social science and engineering tools and techniques in data collection and analysis. Established methods of self-report Time Use dairies and structured questionnaires were combined with innovative high-resolution electricity meters, automated Wearable cameras, and wrist-worn accelerometers capturing both qualitative and quantitative data. Electricity use was explored in this study through the lens of the temporal sequence of everyday activities that occur at home - often synchronised with other activities (or events) - and involving a number of appliances. The analysis of different variants related to time, space, sequence and intensity of activities showed how the extended routines involved in practices like food preparation, eating, personal/family care, household upkeep and resting/leisure time, might be flexible in time to adapt to electricity network requirements. Insights from this study provide indicators of the flexibility (or inflexibility) everyday household practices have which can be scaled-up and explored in larger datasets. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:34:07Z |
| format | Conference item |
| id | oxford-uuid:59493b48-9039-4c98-9fdd-3fcd38441347 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:34:07Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:59493b48-9039-4c98-9fdd-3fcd384413472022-03-26T17:08:53ZEveryday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibilityConference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:59493b48-9039-4c98-9fdd-3fcd38441347Symplectic Elements at Oxford2016Topouzi, MGrunewald, PGershuny, JHarms, TIn managing the high electrical energy demand during the peak early evening hours in UK domestic buildings it is critical to understand how household practices are coordinated in relation to resources used. In this paper an interdisciplinary group of researchers from sociology, environmental science, engineering and health present an account of their methodological approach and the reasoning behind it, along with some evidence of the impact different household everyday activities and routines have on electricity demand. It presents an innovative methodological approach that brings together Time-use and Energy-use research in households by combining social science and engineering tools and techniques in data collection and analysis. Established methods of self-report Time Use dairies and structured questionnaires were combined with innovative high-resolution electricity meters, automated Wearable cameras, and wrist-worn accelerometers capturing both qualitative and quantitative data. Electricity use was explored in this study through the lens of the temporal sequence of everyday activities that occur at home - often synchronised with other activities (or events) - and involving a number of appliances. The analysis of different variants related to time, space, sequence and intensity of activities showed how the extended routines involved in practices like food preparation, eating, personal/family care, household upkeep and resting/leisure time, might be flexible in time to adapt to electricity network requirements. Insights from this study provide indicators of the flexibility (or inflexibility) everyday household practices have which can be scaled-up and explored in larger datasets. |
| spellingShingle | Topouzi, M Grunewald, P Gershuny, J Harms, T Everyday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibility |
| title | Everyday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibility |
| title_full | Everyday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibility |
| title_fullStr | Everyday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibility |
| title_full_unstemmed | Everyday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibility |
| title_short | Everyday household practices and electricity use: Early findings from a mixed-method approach to assign demand and flexibility |
| title_sort | everyday household practices and electricity use early findings from a mixed method approach to assign demand and flexibility |
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