PhD Studentship in understanding and supporting change in domestic energy behaviour

Eligibility: UK/EU/International
Tuition Fees + Bursary £15000 per year
Three years fixed term

PI: Dr John Halloran: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research-bank/research-archive/engineering/cogent-computing/about-us/our-team/dr-john-halloran/?theme=main

THE PROJECT

Decarbonisation of the UK housing stock is now an urgent government priority. Therefore the key issue this PhD will address is how to design effective informatics for domestic energy behaviour change.

The PhD will progress existing research by Cogent Labs and the Low Impact Building Research Centre at Coventry University on two linked tranches of work. One of these is user studies. You will engage with participating occupants to generate understandings of domestic energy behaviour. The other is to use these understandings to inform the development of energy informatics. You will implement, and evaluate in participants’ homes, innovative, user-centred web resources capable of empowering behaviour change.

These will make use of data simultaneously generated in the same homes by Cogent Labs’ existing domestic energy monitoring system, ‘Cogent House’.

Potential solutions might include: an information visualisation showing what energy is currently being used for heating, featuring simulations to show effects if heating patterns were altered; an interactive graphic which could help users understand what to reduce to bring consumption closer to an average of comparable homes; or an app which could inform users of current energy use relative to user-set targets. There are many other possibilities, depending on what the occupant engagement work indicates.

ABOUT THE CENTRE/DEPARTMENT

Cogent Labs is an internationally recognised research centre which develops sensing-based systems designed to empower users across a range of domains. Since its inception in 2006, Cogent has attracted total funding of over £3.5m, including 11 currently active projects with funding of over £1m. Sponsors include EU, EPSRC, TSB, Meggitt PLC, JLR, and Orbit Heart of England Housing Association. Cogent has an extensive portfolio of high-impact publications, together with a strong record of PhD supervision and completion. Cogent Labs has made an important contribution to Coventry University’s research success, reflected in its current standing as the UK’s top modern University.

The Centre for Low Impact Building’s (CLIB) aims to be an academic and industry partner of choice in delivering real solutions to close the design versus in-use performance gap in the built environment. This PhD supports our research theme on owner and occupant responses, their perception of comfort and satisfaction, and consequently the energy and in-use performance of a building, including the well-being and productivity of occupants.

CLIB staff enjoy a vibrant environment of collaboration across academic disciplines, other universities, practionners and industry to ensure that our research has proven impact on the global challenge for sustainability of the built environment that includes human factors.

How to apply: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-students/how-to-apply/

Link to CU page: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-students/research-studentships/Understanding-supporting-change-domestic-energy-behaviour/