Building Banter

"Building Banter: Improving energy efficiency through ‘conversing’ with buildings and users in an engaging manner" is an industry-led project funded by the Technology Strategy Board and EPSRC, aiming to develop consultancy tools and retrofittable products for greater energy efficiency in non-domestic buildings, targeting user behaviour.

The project included several industrial and academic partners, and focused on a manufacturing case-study (at Federal Mogul). UCL's role includes assessment of the case study’s energy performance, as well as canvassing of energy saving opportunities and challenges, with a particular focus on users’ behaviour.

People

PI: Chris Wright, Moixa Energy

Co-Is: Marcella Ucci (UCL); Alex Rogers (University of Southampton); Andy Milligan (University of Dundee); Vicky Hunter (University of Leeds); Tim Whitley (Arup); Kevin Corrin (Federal Mogul); Adrian Westaway (Vitamins). 

Output

Overall the project successfully trialled a number of technological solutions to help change energy use via behaviour change in the case study building. Some of these solutions are now being further developed by Moixa Energy. 

UCL lead a workpackage aiming to assess the baseline and benchmark energy consumption at the industrial site, producing a report which was then utilised by the industrial case study partners. 

UCL also lead a journal publication: Ucci et al., (2012), Behaviour change potential for energy saving in non-domestic buildings: Development and pilot-testing of a benchmarking tool, BSERT. 

Impact

The technology developed as part of this project has been later applied in other applications, included a theatre and a housing development. The case study site also strongly benefited from the project in terms of understanding its energy use and associated behaviours. 

Links

For further information please contact: Marcella Ucci