METHODOLOGY, PROSPECTIVE, REFLEXIVITY
Thermal comfort and refurbished social housing in Mediterranean area.
Cécile BATIER (Montpellier 2 University/LMGC ; ENSAM/LIFAM)
Franck CEVAËR (Montpellier 2 University /LMGC)
Jean-François DUBÉ (Montpellier 2 University /LMGC)
Vinicius RADUCANU (ENSAM/LIFAM)
The french Plan of Energy Renovation of Housing (PREH) intends to renovate 500 000 housings a year to 2017. In many cases, only an external thermal insulation is installed on the facade to reduce energy consumption in winter. In Mediterranean areas, it raises the question of summer comfort. It is difficult to dissipate the accumulated heat if the occupant doesn’t act on his environment. This, coupled with heat waves, can be fatal to vulnerable persons
The aim of this study is to analyse thermal conditions of occupied Mediterranean social housings and to establish a specific predictive behavioral model of the inhabitants, in order to improve the quality of the architectural design in further refurbishing operations. Two residences built in 1969 in Vauvert (Gard) are investigated. Initially, built in the same way, they were similarly renovated (VMC, boiler, windows). On the facade of one of them, an external thermal insulation has been recently installed. The analysis of the coupling between the real thermal conditions, the actual human behavior and energy consumption is based on an extensive, year-round survey and an in-situ instrumentation in the living room of 13 apartments. This will lead to a finer fitting of the dynamic thermal simulation parameters. Simulations help to understand the comfort impact and the energy consumption of the thermal refurbishment in a Mediterranean climate.
In winter, that analysis confirms the interest of an external thermal insulation to improve comfort and to decrease energy consumptions. In summer, this trend is not confirmed. The human behavior is important to protect himself from the summer discomfort. The aim is to propose architectural and behavioural changes to improve thermal comfort and to decrease energy consumption in Mediterranean social housing to refurbish.
KEY WORDS: thermal comfort, refurbishment, energy-efficient building, social housing, human behavior.
The energy transition through the prism of “logics of action”: diversity and dynamics of appropriation.
Cécile CARON (EDF R& D – GRETS)
In the field of the management of the electricity demand, studies and pilot projects in the residential sector conduits throughout the world over dynamic tariffing, the piloting of the uses or the devices of information (Darby, 2006; Faruqui, 2010) borrow very largely from the experimental step. They mainly seek to measure in real situation and controlled near a whole of households the effects, like their maintenance in time, of these devices on the load diagram. The robustness of the results obtained is reported to the representativeness of the panels and reference groups (Fisher, 2008). Nevertheless, since the investigations (1927-1939) led to the Company Western, one measures that the engagement of the participants is partly modelled by the devices of follow-up and observation produced by the experimental framework (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939). A structural tension thus crosses the control of the experiments which seek in same time to neutralize the effect “hawthorne” and the forms of reflexivity induced by the experimental mode to evaluate the effectiveness of the devices proposed (Teil, Muniesa, 2006) and to be pressed on the devices stylistics suitable for the experimental mode which encourages the participants to be recipients of the results (Lanham, 2006) in order to accompany the incentives with the “behavioral change”.
We propose, through a qualitative work of investigation realized near the experimentative hearths in the residential sector and of the carriers of project of an experimentation carried out on the territory of Large Lyon, the project “Smart Electric Lyon”, to see how this tension and uncertainties which it generates model the appropriation of the various tested devices.
The project Smart Electric Lyon joins together with the support of the public authorities a consortium of 20 actors, industrialists of the electric die and academics, on the territory of large Lyon, to develop, try out and evaluate solutions tariff, of information and piloting, compatible with meter Linky the electricity, seeking at the same time to support the control of the consumption of electricity and the flexibility of the request at the time of the winter peaks. It appears that the experimental device constitutes a true “trajectory” which binds the events which enamel of them the course with all the organization of work deployed to follow it (Strauss, 1985, transl. france 1991). Here, the key stages of the experimental process, (recruitment of the participating hearths, installation of the material of obliteration in residence, indication of the days of point, meeting of the participants, reception of the invoices and assessment of consumption) go, via the devices and professionals or the collectives implied in their bearing to contribute to forge the direction and the methods of appropriation of the tested devices: setting in front of the tariff and of the financial profits at the time of recruitment, focusing on obliteration after the installation of the material of piloting, reinforcement of the participative design after the “evening of the pioneers”. These moments of focusing question, from the point of view of the participants, the complementarity of the three devices (tariff, of information, of piloting), of which the use ends up being stabilized in practices losing original inciting dynamics. The experimental mode puts not only to the test the innovation in becoming, but it is also put to the test by multiple appropriations.
KEY WORDS: experimentation, demonstrator project, smart grids, innovation, consumption of energy. span>
Survey methods in shopping areas: the flow of knowledge as a construct of the energy efficiency.
Céline DROZD (ENSA Nantes/CERMA)
Kévin MAHÉ (ENSA Nantes/CERMA)
Ignacio REQUENA-RUIZ (ENSA Nantes/CERMA)
Daniel SIRET (ENSA Nantes/CERMA)
Based on the skills of the customers of DIY centres and material retailers to plan or modify their houses, we assume that they constitute a relevant sample to approach the question of housing energy consumption. DIY centres, moreover, seem to be essential places to share knowledge and to construct the users’ expertise regarding to the stores’ products. Given that ethnographic surveys in shopping areas are commonly focused on either consumers’ behavior or internal store stakeholders’ practices, we propose two innovative methods aiming to study the information flow on energy efficiency.
In a first research we study how inhabitants interpret and understand technical representations of daylight and lighting analysis used for the early design stages. To do so, we develop a campaign of customer surveys in a DIY centre in order to ask them about different images resulting from a single house lighting simulation. In a second research , we conduct several surveys in DIY centres and material retailers’ departments that offer products related to buildings’ energy consumption. Through a method of passive observation, our aim is to analyze energy advice scenes to discern the exchange modalities between both inhabitant and seller. We seek to understand the technical basis and the practical forms that lead the offer of advice and the support on energy efficiency for the inhabitants.
This paper will present the implementation of two methods of surveys on energy efficiency in shopping areas. In particular, we will pay special attention to how the information is exchanged between professionals and inhabitants as well as how it is understood and interpreted by them. The main issue is the construction of the inhabitants’ expertise in order to improve housing energy efficiency.
KEY WORDS: energy efficiency, DIY centres, material retailers, inhabitant’s expertise, energy advice.
The territorial diagnostic. A methodological tool to territorialize the Corporative Social Responsibility in the Mexican oil industry.
Armando GARCIA CHIANG (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana/Unidad Iztapalapa)
Since the year 2012, a new type of contract has been bid on: ” Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) Integrated Contracts for Exploration and Production have led to the arrival of new actors in the Mexican oil market.
In fulfillment of the requirements of the contracts, the new operators must apply 1% of their annual budget to social development, and they have to establish Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plans, which can be applied during the life of the contracts (25 to 30 years).
These plans must contain proposals for concrete initiatives which could contribute to sustainable development in the territories where the oil companies operate.
In this context, a group of researchers of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unit Iztapalapa (UAMI), in the frame of a research project named Social and Environmental Aspects of the Oil Industry, developed a methodology to create proposals of concrete social responsibility initiatives prone to encourage the economic and social development of the population who lives in 7 different contractual areas (2 in the southern state of Tabasco, 3 in the state of Veracruz, another one in Tamaulipas and the last one offshore, fact that implicated the creation of an area of influence).
This methodology includes the establishment of a social and economic baseline, the creation of a Corporate Social Responsibility Plan and, most importantly, a set of initiatives of concrete social responsibility actions adapted to the territory, in other words, territorial development actions that could come to be an alternative for sustainable local development.
This paper describes the aforementioned methodology; it present the results of the “Social and Environmental Aspects of the Oil Industry” research project, and it tries to answer whether Corporate Social Responsibility in the Mexican Oil Industry could become a real financial contributor to development.
KEY WORDS: oil industry, Mexico, Corporative Social Responsibility, methodology, territorial diagnostic.
Reflection on the part of the sociology of energy in building sector.
Aurélie TRICOIRE ( Paris-EST University / CSTB)
Benjamin HAAS(Université Paris-EST/ CSTB)
In the building sector, decreasing energy consumption recently became a strong objective for sustainable development. The French answer to this issue is the implementation of increasingly demanding regulations on building thermic performance. To make sure that buildings match regulation objectives, consumption simulations are performed during the designing step. These simulations include the five standard services (space heating, space cooling, ventilation, domestic hot water and lighting) assessed through a standard calculation defined by decree. But a difference remains between simulation and measurement. A first explanation for that is the standard calculations perimeter which do not include energy consumptions related to occupant (extra heating, household electrical goods, etc.). Indeed these “other uses” represent an increasing percentage of buildings’ consumption as global energetic performances recently improve. Following this argument, one can conclude that reducing the difference between theoretical and real consumptions and doing so decreasing building energy consumption can only be achieved through focusing on occupant by better integrating him/her to simulation and by promoting behavioral changes.
Investigating professional practices, another explanation arises. Indeed, simulation results are characterized by a sizeable uncertainty mainly related to approximations on theoretical material’s and equipment’s performance rather than on the accuracy of occupation scenarios directly associated with users. Considering now real consumption, it appears that quality both in building works and exploitation can also be noticeably improved. For instance, improvement can be real in reducing the buildings’ residual energetic consumption, i.e. the energy consumed by the building even when empty.
But currently, the main expectations of the building actors from sociology concern occupants’ behavioral changes. It is about finding ways (awareness, public policies instruments, economic profit-sharing, etc.) to make occupants behave accordingly to the consumption reduction objectives, whatever the real impact. The hypothesis is that these behavioral changes will impact consumption. But all the research projects only dedicated to behavioral changes conclude, more or less explicitly, to the failure of such approaches. Indeed, the expected savings represent utmost 5 to 10% of the overall consumption and moreover they last a short time. Of course, awareness campaigns are useful, as are useful the related researches. But they are no efficient answer to society requirement to reduce building energy consumption. A huge amount of energy savings seems to be certain by working on professional and technical implementation, objects of study on which sociology definitively has strong and structuring contributions to deliver.
KEY WORDS: sociological reflexivity, occupant, energy, use, building.
A biomimetic analysis for the social patterns of energy usage: an international comparison.
Christophe GOUPIL (Université Paris 7 Diderot / LIED)
Rodrigo PATINO(Université Paris 7 Diderot / LIED ; Departamento de Física Aplicada, Cinvestav : Unidad Mérida, Mexico) )
For the energetic systems, as well as for the patterns of energy usage, it is necessary to identify the potential actions to reduce the wastes of energy and its corresponding environmental effects. With this perspective, in the present work the national production and consumption of energy are analyzed for 20 selected countries from the five continents in the planet. The official data reported by the main international organizations, as the International Energy Agency and the United Nations, are used in this first approach. A second analysis is focalized on the energy usage in different cities from Mexico and France in order to obtain an evaluation grid based on national data.
In this context, the social usage of energy at three scales: national, city and households, is modelled from a biomimetic point of view. Comparing two main factors: resource availability and the specific use of energy, a diversity of practices can be derived. Our model points out the organism’s characteristics (alimentation, mobility, security, reproduction, etc.), as well as its environmental properties (weather, resources, sheltering, etc.). At the social level, these observations allow to define the ways of adaptation and, mainly, adaptability of social groups to survive on the next generations.
This adaptability, opposed to the observation of an adapted condition, has different impacts in a period of energetic transition. The processes of urbanisation, industrialization, transportation and feeding, are key factors that should be considered in order to avoid the privation of individual rights, depending on the resilience level of a specific social group. The implicit challenge is then to identify clearly the ways to evolve to a state with an increase in energetic efficiency, sharing responsibilities among different societies and without pushing others to sober or precarious conditions.
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KEY WORDS: biomimetic model, national policies, resources, adaptation, efficiency.
Combining Economics and Social Psychology to improve preferences appraisal and reduce statement effects – A web survey of French citizens’ willingness to reduce CO2 emissions.
Dorian LITVINE (ISEA Projects ; University of Montpellier 1/CREDEN)
Henrik ANDERSSON (Toulouse School of Economics /LERNA, UT1, CNRS)
Developing reliable methods to assess individual’s preferences for, and values of, environmental amenities are important for policy making. In the context of climate change mitigation, the importance of individual commitments is highlighted by recent difficulties in obtaining international agreement on government policy, as well as by criticisms against the ecological efficiency of emission caps. Understanding citizens’ disposition to reducing voluntary carbon emissions and the determinants of this is important. Stated preference methods such as Contingent Valuation (CV) have been applied to explore citizens’ value for climate mitigation, but statement biases and precise appraisal of preferences are important concerns.
Our study investigates these issues by analyzing the French householders’ disposition to reduce CO2 emissions by purchasing and withdrawing carbon allowances (n=1730). Our focus is to determine how to elicit respondents’ value for such a service using a web-based stated preferences survey (i.e. the CV), mitigating the problem related to the hypothetical nature of the survey by using knowledge and methods from economics and social psychology.
We adjust for the impact of potential statement bias and statement/behavior discrepancy on estimates of valuation. To do so, we explore the demand by combining the willingness to pay (WTP) with more subjective dependant variables, integrated into an action model of psychological variables such as beliefs, attitudes, moral norms, behavioral intention and general acceptance to pay. Additionally, respondents’ reported intention to find information is compared to their effective effort during questionnaire process (overt behavior). We combine this criterion with the level of consistency between individual’s answers to latent environmental variables (attitudes, concern, etc.) and respondents’ reported regular ecological actions.
By interacting different levels of individual psychology, and by applying it within an interactive web-survey environment, our study proposes to more accurately measure individual preferences, and reduce or adjust the impact of statement biases on the estimations. This paper not only has a methodological contribution but also is of policy relevance. A better explanation of attitudes and preferences leads to answers that we consider reflect better respondents’ true value, which can be important for policy purposes. The measures of the citizens’ attitudes and intention to voluntary reduce CO2 emissions, being often indirect and not precise, are important to understand the role of individual commitment into climate mitigation policies. This survey suggests that the citizens’ intervention on the European Emission Trading Scheme is of high interest for social well-being.
KEY WORDS: stated preferences methods, demand evaluation, statement bias, social psychology, climate mitigation.