A Study on BEMS Based on Behavioral Economics for Small and Medium-Sized Buildings

Abstract

The authors have researched and developed Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) to promote energy-savings in small and medium-sized office buildings. In order to accelerate the installation of BEMS into these buildings, it is important to develop BEMS which meets the following two requirements;1) To achieve the system configuration through the ease of installation.2) To have functions of inducing energy-saving behaviors of people in the office.For the purpose of developing practical BEMS, it is essential to examine the above from a viewpoint of the human side. In this paper, a concept of the system developed by the authors is briefly introduced, and followed by the discussion on users' energy-saving behaviors induced by the information providing method. First, the outline and features of the system are introduced. Next, the research on the information providing method for inducing energy-saving behaviors is explained. Finally, based on these researches, we propose a design policy for the information providing method to induce energy-saving behaviors. It is to provide information that increases the motivation before actions are taken and to reduce the occurrences of dissatisfaction after taking such actions. Currently, the effects of the system are under validation regarding whether it maintains and induces energy-saving behaviors.