Energy and Behaviour

It is becoming clear that the the way people live their lives, including the way they inhabit buildings, makes a substantial difference to their energy use. Households of similar sizes and compositions living in homes of similar design and with similar infrastructures can have very different ways of living for all sorts of habitual, cultural and aesthetic reasons. This has implications for potential energy efficiency interventions and for the modelling of future energy demand. The same is true of non-domestic energy use where sensitivity to price (for example) is known to vary over time as contextual factors interplay. SERG’s research in this area concentrates on understanding and modelling behavioural aspects of energy use including potential rebound effects.


8th March, 2018

SERG’s Dr Ben Anderson recently gave an Otago Energy Research Centre seminar on the SAVE project results to date. He was also invited to give an interview to the University of Otago’s radio station, RadioOne 91FM (“Aotearoa’s southernmost student radio station!”). Interview:   Seminar abstract: “Whilst overall reduction of energy demand is receiving increasing policy […]


26th January, 2018

The 9 Case Studies showcase the breadth and applicability of the Liveable Cities research to practice and to everyday life. A copy of the case studies is available to download here: #1 Natural Capital in Birmingham. by Nick Grayson, Jonathan Sadler, James Hale, Martin Locret-Collet and Chris Bouch #2 Energy, Transport and Waste in Birmingham: […]


21st December, 2017

Following the roadshows and a successful closing event in the House of Lords, the Liveable Cities – Little Book series are now available online to download as PDF. The Little Books aim to be easy to read and accessible in order to inform the public about some of the key research outputs and the main […]


It isn’t hard to find similarities between the British Isles and New Zealand.  The traditions derived from the British immigration to the islands (and the South Island in particular) emerge as a common language; as familiar sports at which, for the most part, the Kiwis give us a good thumping; a liking for real ale, […]


1st December, 2017

SERG’s Dr Ben Anderson has just started the outgoing phase of his EU H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie scheme-funded SPATIALEC Global Fellowship. Based at the University of Otago’s Centre for Sustainability, Ben will initially be working on combining time use and electricity monitoring data from the New Zealand GREEN Grid  project with  New Zealand Census data to […]


21st November, 2017

SERG’s Dr Ben Anderson presented the SAVE study design and trial period 1 preliminary analysis at Scottish and Southern Energy Network’s Using Energy Efficiency to Defer Network Reinforcement parliamentary event at the Houses of Parliament on November 20th, 2017. With an introduction from Alan Whitehead MP (Shadow Minister (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) […]


15th October, 2017

Dr Despina Manouseli presented a poster on the IMPETUS domestic hot water demand model at the annual Behavior Energy and Climate Conference in Sacramento, California in October 2017. The poster presented a novel, practices-based approach to hot water demand estimation ‘under normal conditions’ using microsimulation to forecast seasonal demand at the household level under various water/energy conservation scenarios. The models suggest that the installation […]


28th August, 2017

SERG is part of a team led by UCL to deliver the new GB Smart Meter Research Portal (SMRP) with funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. SMRP will provide a secure, consistent and trusted channel for researchers to access high-resolution smart meter energy consumption data, which will facilitate innovative energy research […]


16th June, 2017

SERG’s Dr Tom Rushby gave a summary of early SAVE project results at two SAVE ‘Open Days’ on the 10th & 11th of May 2017. The events, which were lead by SSEN but hosted by the University, consisted of a series of short talks and facilitated discussions intended to help inform the project’s future direction. Tom […]


Solent Achieving Value from Efficiency (SAVE) project poster presented to the ‘Clean Carbon‘ USRG by SERG’s Dr Thomas Rushby, 10th May 2017 References list: [1] EA Technology. Future Load Growth from presentation titled ‘SAVE Project Customer & Network Model Meeting’. 17th February 2015 [2] Newsham, Guy R., and Brent G. Bowker. ‘The Effect of Utility Time-Varying […]