Modelling energy-consuming social practices as agents

Household energy use and personal transport account for a considerable proportion of total energy use and of greenhouse gas emissions. For example, in Europe about 35% of all primary energy use and 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from private households [1]. Given the vital importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, the dynamics of household energy demand and consumption have become a matter of considerable interest. Following [2], the discussion of energy consumption and efficiency in the domestic sector usually takes the form of highlighting either practice-related behaviour or the potential of technological innovation. Although it touches on aspects of the latter, this paper has its main focus on the former, which according to [3] has so far has been underrepresented despite being able to make a significant difference with respect to energy consumption [4]. The paper presents some initial ideas about an agentbased model for simulating practice-related aspects related to household energy consumption. For this purpose it draws upon the vast body of social science literature discussing determinants of human lifestyles and how lifestyle changes could be promoted (see [5]–[7] for examples). It adopts a Social Practice Theory (SPT) approach, which in recent years has received increasing attention by researchers and policy makers, because—instead of placing individual trait driven behaviour and decision making at the centre of analysis—it puts the spotlight on how, at given points of time, broader collectives of practices establish and achieve everyday objectives. In the next section this approach and its relevance for the study of domestic energy consumption are presented. One of the conclusions drawn is that so far no simulation model accounting for the different aspects of social practices exists, which is why we aim to close this gap and present our idea of a social practice agent-based model (ABM) in Section III. The paper closes with a short summary and proposals for future work.