Negotiating comfort in low energy housing : The politics of intermediation
(2015) In Energy Policy 84. p.213-222- Abstract
- Optimising the energy performance of buildings is technically and economically challenging but it also has significant social implications. Maintaining comfortable indoor conditions while reducing energy consumption involves careful design, construction, and management of the built environment and its inhabitants. In this paper, we present findings from the study of a new low energy building for older people in Grenoble, France where conflicts emerged over the simultaneous pursuit of energy efficiency and comfort. The findings contribute to the contemporary literature on the sociotechnical study of buildings and energy use by focusing on intermediation, those activities that associate a technology to end users. Intermediation activities... (More)
- Optimising the energy performance of buildings is technically and economically challenging but it also has significant social implications. Maintaining comfortable indoor conditions while reducing energy consumption involves careful design, construction, and management of the built environment and its inhabitants. In this paper, we present findings from the study of a new low energy building for older people in Grenoble, France where conflicts emerged over the simultaneous pursuit of energy efficiency and comfort. The findings contribute to the contemporary literature on the sociotechnical study of buildings and energy use by focusing on intermediation, those activities that associate a technology to end users. Intermediation activities take many forms, and in some cases, can result in the harmonisation or alignment of energy efficiency goals and comfort goals. In other cases, intermediation is unsuccessful, leading to the conventional dichotomy between optimising technical performance and meeting occupant preferences. By highlighting the multiple ways that comfort and energy efficiency is negotiated, we conclude that buildings are provisional achievements that are constantly being intermediated. This suggests that building energy efficiency policies and programmes need to provide opportunities for intermediaries to negotiate the desires and preferences of the multiple stakeholders that are implicated in low energy buildings. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/50a0ce20-f881-428f-972d-4f6dd5ee2739
- author
- Grandclement, Catherine ; Karvonen, Andrew LU and Guy, Simon
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Energy efficiency, comfort, Domestic buildings, Occupation stage, Intermediation
- in
- Energy Policy
- volume
- 84
- pages
- 10 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84937679315
- ISSN
- 0301-4215
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.enpol.2014.11.034
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 50a0ce20-f881-428f-972d-4f6dd5ee2739
- date added to LUP
- 2021-11-21 08:41:47
- date last changed
- 2022-02-02 01:26:44
@article{50a0ce20-f881-428f-972d-4f6dd5ee2739,
abstract = {{Optimising the energy performance of buildings is technically and economically challenging but it also has significant social implications. Maintaining comfortable indoor conditions while reducing energy consumption involves careful design, construction, and management of the built environment and its inhabitants. In this paper, we present findings from the study of a new low energy building for older people in Grenoble, France where conflicts emerged over the simultaneous pursuit of energy efficiency and comfort. The findings contribute to the contemporary literature on the sociotechnical study of buildings and energy use by focusing on intermediation, those activities that associate a technology to end users. Intermediation activities take many forms, and in some cases, can result in the harmonisation or alignment of energy efficiency goals and comfort goals. In other cases, intermediation is unsuccessful, leading to the conventional dichotomy between optimising technical performance and meeting occupant preferences. By highlighting the multiple ways that comfort and energy efficiency is negotiated, we conclude that buildings are provisional achievements that are constantly being intermediated. This suggests that building energy efficiency policies and programmes need to provide opportunities for intermediaries to negotiate the desires and preferences of the multiple stakeholders that are implicated in low energy buildings.}},
author = {{Grandclement, Catherine and Karvonen, Andrew and Guy, Simon}},
issn = {{0301-4215}},
keywords = {{Energy efficiency; comfort; Domestic buildings; Occupation stage; Intermediation}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{213--222}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Energy Policy}},
title = {{Negotiating comfort in low energy housing : The politics of intermediation}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.11.034}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.enpol.2014.11.034}},
volume = {{84}},
year = {{2015}},
}