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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Energy Efficiency
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1498140
This article is part of the Research Topic Energy Management, Energy Efficiency Policies, and Energy System Studies View all 6 articles

. Decision making about increased building automationbarriers, drivers and motivation factors

Provisionally accepted
Anna-Lena Lane Anna-Lena Lane 1,2Andreas Selhammer Andreas Selhammer 3Patrik Thollander Patrik Thollander 2,4Mathias Cehlin Mathias Cehlin 2*
  • 1 Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 2 University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden
  • 3 AFRY, Gävle, Sweden
  • 4 Linköping University, Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Energy efficiency has been identified as a way of addressing the need to reduce climate impact from fossil fuels. Furthermore, the ongoing twin transition may provide better and more energy-efficient control of buildings with systems such as building management systems (BMS). However, there appear to be barriers to investments in functional digital tools, as there are for other energy-efficient technologies for buildings. This paper is based on a questionnaire study with technology providers, decision makers and users of building management systems. The questionnaire included questions regarding barriers, drivers, and motivations for investments in BMS. Improved energy efficiency was found to be an important motivation for investments in BMS for users and decision makers, but the technology providers elevated more easy work as important. The main driver for investments in BMS was related to reduced energy costs, while for the decision makers, financial barriers such as risks and hidden cost were ranked highest. An important knowledge barrier was found as knowledge is needed for decisions about investments, use of BMS and decisions regarding IT security, such as handling of data. A key conclusion is the need for a facilitator, as knowledge is needed for decisions about BMS investments and for its use. On a broader scale, the paper argues for the need to include facilitators as a core part of future policies within the twin transition.

    Keywords: Energy efficiency gap, Twin transition, Building automation system (BAS), Building management system (BMS), energy efficiency, questionnaire, energy-efficient technology (EET)

    Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lane, Selhammer, Thollander and Cehlin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mathias Cehlin, University of Gävle, Gävle, 801 76, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.