Assessing the effectiveness of gamification in reducing domestic energy consumption: lessons learned from the EnerGAware project

Casals, M., Gangolells, M., Macarulla, M., Forcada, N., Fuertes, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6224-1489, Hafner, R. J. and Jones, R. V. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2716-9872 (2020) Assessing the effectiveness of gamification in reducing domestic energy consumption: lessons learned from the EnerGAware project. Energy and Buildings, 210. 109753. ISSN 0378-7788 doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109753

Abstract/Summary

The application of gamification to encourage energy conservation behaviour in house occupants is an emerging field of research. However, empirical evidence of its effectiveness is lacking. This paper presents lessons learnt from the EU-funded EnerGAware research project, in which an innovative serious game (a game designed for purposes other than purely entertainment) was developed to promote reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions by changing social housing tenants’ energy efficiency behaviour. The game was validated in a sample of European social housing using a longitudinal, two-stage experimental design, employing both pre-post and control group approaches. While some aspects of the game did not work as intended, there were nevertheless some positive impacts. The intervention increased social housing tenants’ awareness and engagement in certain energy saving behaviour and provided an average electricity saving of 3.46% and an average gas saving of 7.48%. Although savings were found not to be statistically significant, an effect size was detected (0.2). Therefore, future steps should exploit all available opportunities to replicate the pilot and increase the sample size so as to gain stronger evidence of the game's impact. Preliminary results support the utility of gaming investment in the household energy efficiency field, and provide useful insights and pathways that could be incorporated into the development of future serious game interventions to foster their effectiveness.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/105788
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109753
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Science > School of the Built Environment > Construction Management and Engineering Science > School of the Built Environment > Energy and Environmental Engineering group Science > School of the Built Environment > Organisation, People and Technology group
Publisher	Elsevier
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