Submit/Manage Event Terms & Conditions

Call for abstracts: 1st ever Energy-Feedback Symposium

Start/Stop Date:
01 Mar 2016
Organiser:
Teddinet, University of Essex, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Venue:
Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation.
Focus Areas:
Energy-feedback
Type of Event:
Conference

Energy-Feedback Symposium – Call for Abstracts
Energy feedback, the provision of energy-consumption information to energy-users, forms a core component of
many initiatives that aspire to shift or reduce energy demand. It features in both domestic and non-domestic
settings and takes many forms including utility bills, in-home-displays, phones apps, emails from facilities
managers, advice from friends and guidance from consumer and business support centres.

In recent years, the world-wide roll out of smart-metering has led to a surge in feedback-related initiatives with
academics, policy-makers and those in industry keen to identify if and how it can promote energy efficiency and
reduction. With this in mind, this symposium seeks to bring together all those with an interest in energy-feedback
to share the latest empirical evidence in this arena and to use insights gained from this knowledge-sharing
exercise to influence and contribute to innovation, future research, and policy and practice in this field.

We warmly welcome you to submit your contributions to the 1st ever Energy-Feedback Symposium, to be held
on the 4th-5thJuly 2016 at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation.

This symposium aims to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in the topic of energy-feedback.
The event will combine key note speakers from academia and industry, short paper contributions, group
discussion, interactive exercises, and dedicated opportunities to explore future collaborations. In addition, we are
keen for the event to respond to participant needs and so in the spirit of co-production, the exact format of the
Symposium will reflect the interests of those who register to attend.

We aim to make all presentations given at the conference publicly available through the TEDDINET website (with
author permission) and are currently pursuing opportunities for a journal Special Issue based on selected
presentations.

Keynote Speakers
We are delighted to have confirmed Dr. Sarah Darby from the Environmental Change Institute, University of
Oxford as one of our key note speakers, and look forward to announcing the rest of our keynotes in due course.

Attendance
Details of how to register will be made available in due course. This event is funded by the Transforming Energy
Demand through Digital Innovation Network (TEDDINET). This means that the conference will be free to attend
and we encourage all those with an interest in this area to consider coming along, whether you want to present
research findings or simply to network with others. TEDDINET will also cover the costs of travel and
accommodation for those selected to present papers and for members of TEDDINET projects.

Guidelines for Abstracts
A short abstract (max 600 words) is needed by March 1st 2016, for participants wishing to speak at this event.
Contributions are welcomed – but not restricted to- the following suggested topics. Namely:

  • Forms of feedback – Can the form that feedback takes (e.g., IHDs and apps vs. the provision of advice or enhanced billing) influence its effectiveness? How does this vary across different contexts (e.g. domestic, non-domestic, social housing, owner-occupiers, and commercial buildings, small-scale, large-scale)?
  • Providers of feedback – Who provides feedback and how is it conceptualised, deployed, and supported? How do relationships between ‘provider’ and ‘user’ influence effectiveness? If there are two-way flows of feedback, how does that work out for the actors involved? What lessons do providers learn from feedback projects and programmes?
  • Targets of feedback – Receivers of feedback include householders, employees, consumers, customers, facility managers, social housing associations, fuel poor, ethnic minorities and much more. How do these targets use feedback, and does this change over time?
  • Theories behind feedback – How and why might feedback work? What do different disciplines (e.g., sociology, psychology, economics, education) say about the mechanisms underpinning feedback?
  • Policy drivers/rationales for feedback – Drivers include reducing energy demand, saving carbon, economic savings, tackling fuel poverty, developing knowledge and awareness of energy use. To what extent has experience shown these to be valid?
  • Success in feedback – How can feedback be evaluated effectively? What counts as success (energy saved, suitability of savings, reduction in peak demand, increased awareness and knowledge of energy issues etc.)? And what do existing evaluations show?
  • Maximizing efficacy – Which techniques or strategies can be used to optimize the success of feedback? Which have worked and which haven’t, and in what contexts? How does feedback feed into other energy demand strategies, policies, interventions, tools, behaviour nudge techniques, wider engagement initiatives and consumer support campaigns? Which synergies are, or might be, productive? How and why?
  • Beyond numeric feedback – There are many types of feedback aside from numeric (e.g., visual, sensory, policy-based, algorithm-grounded etc). How does this fit into the bigger picture of how people understand energy and take part in energy systems?

Please include the following information with your abstract sent to k.buchanan@essex.ac.uk:

  • Name, organisation, and contact email
  • Any thoughts you may have on what you would like to get out of the symposium or see included as part
  • of the event?
  • Are you a member of a TEDDINET project?
  • Do you require accommodation booking?
  • Do you have any dietary or access/disability requirements?

Conference organisation committee
Kathryn Buchanan, University of Essex, UK. Contact: k.buchanan@essex.ac.uk
Samantha Staddon, University of Edinburgh, UK. Contact: Sam.staddon@ed.ac.uk