Energy feedback at the city-wide scale

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. May 2014. Major: Architecture. Advisor: James Lutz. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 32 pages, appendix A.Climate change is a growing concern throughout the world. In the United States, leadership has so far failed to establish targeted reductions and agreement on mitigation strategies. Despite this, many large cities are taking on the challenge of measuring their emissions, establishing targeted reductions, and defining strategies for mitigation in the form of Climate Action Plans. Reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by these cities is usually based on a one-time, annual calculation. Many studies have been conducted on the impact of providing energy use data or feedback to households, and in some cases, institutional or commercial businesses. In most of those studies, the act of providing feedback has resulted in a reduction of energy use, ranging from 2% to 15%, depending upon the features of the feedback. Many of these studies included only electric use. Studies where all energy use was reported are more accurate representations of GHG emissions. GHG emissions and energy use are not the same, depending on the fuel source and in the case of this paper, the focus is on reducing energy use.This research documents the characteristics of the feedback provided in those studies in order to determine which are most effective and should be considered for application to the community-wide scale. Eleven studies, including five primary and six secondary research papers, were reviewed and analyzed for the features of the feedback. Trends were established and evaluated with respect to their effectiveness and potential for use at the community-wide scale.This paper concludes that additional research is required to determine if the use of energy feedback at the city scale could result in savings similar to those observed at the household scale. This additional research could take advantage of the features assessed here in order to be more effective and to implement the features that are best able to scale up. Further research is needed to determine whether combining city-wide feedback with feedback for individual energy users within the city, both residential and commercial, has an even greater impact on reducing energy use and lowering GHG emissions