Occupants’ Perceptions on Indoor Comfort as a Key Factor in Residential Energy Use.

Abstract

Ensuring that Ghana accomplishes an appropriate level of energy efficiency is an inevitably urgent issue considering the recurrent energy challenges since the 1990s, the continuous energy crisis since 2010, as well as the rapid rate of deterioration in global warming. Notwithstanding the major role building occupants play in energy consumption, assessing energy efficiency in Ghanaian buildings has mostly been by computer simulations and calculations without factoring their perceptions. This study examined the extent to which the perceptions of residential building occupants on indoor comfort, could impact their electric energy-related behaviours in the homes they live in. An energy conscious “occupants factor” alone could result in between 20% and 50% energy savings. An extensive literature review was conducted on the key concepts and relevant items. The concepts of Perception on Indoor Comfort Based on Building Design (POICBOBD) and Perception on Energy Efficiency Behaviors (POEEB) were used for the study. Residential occupants selected purposively responded to 112 questionnaires. The frequencies and means of the responses were analyzed with Microsoft Excel. Relative Importance Index was used to rank the selected items. SPSS Spearson’s rank correlation was also used to establish the relationship between the two concepts and the results showed a strong positive correlation (r=1.000, p=0.01). POICBOBD, therefore, has a significant impact on POEEB and hence likely to affect electric-energy usage in residential homes. This study concludes that since residential homes could act as strong stimuli for electric energy-related behaviours, building occupants must consult architects to design and retrofit their homes, who must also continuously update their knowledge on contemporary systems. Finally, there is the need to develop a comprehensive sensitization of building occupants on energy efficiency measures in order to ensure sustainable behavioural patterns in Ghanaian residential homes.