Environmental saving potentials of a smart home system from a life cycle perspective: How green is the smart home?

“Quantifying the implications of behavioral changes induced by digitalization on energy transition: A systematic review of methodological approaches”

“…Three studies developed an ad-hoc ABM [41][42][43] to estimate userrelated effects, while one paper used empirical data [46], four papers used a survey [44] [47] [50] [52], five papers used a field experiment or a living lab approach [45] [49] [51] [53] [54], one paper used a social practice approach [48]. The changed practice effect is analyzed in all the studies, while one paper deal with the spending effect [43] and 1 with the induced effect.…”

“…The changed practice effect is analyzed in all the studies, while one paper deal with the spending effect [43] and 1 with the induced effect. [44].…”

“…These energy conservation behavior lead to different economic savings that can be reallocated to buy additional products and services (the savings rebound effect was quantified via scenario assumptions). Pohl et al [44] proposed an online survey to quantify the induction rebound effect of smart houses on households' behavior in terms of temperature setting, concluding that no significant difference was identified between the smart home sample and the control group. In a real-life experiment, Tuomela et al [45] discovered that a home energy management system can induce behavioral changes due to increased awareness.…”

“…However, if households' economic savings from load shifting programs are spent on polluting commodities such as gas or diesel oil (systemic impact), the potential environmental benefit of smart houses is dimmer by 5 % [43]. The LCA study of Phol et al [44] concluded that a 6 % of annual heating savings needs to be reached by smart houses in Germany to compensate for the energy used in the production and operation phase of the system. Analyzing realtime data, Tuomela et al [45] concluded that a home energy management system can reduce by 30 % the electricity consumption of Finnish households.…”

“…reduces the possibility of scaling-up their results. For example, Pohl et al [44] concluded that smart home systems in Germany could provide environmental benefits if at least 6 % of annual heating energy is saved. However, long-term measurements of household energy consumption are needed to validate their results.…”