Putting consumers first in design for sustainable behaviour: a case study of reducing environmental impacts of cold appliance use

Figures & data

Figure 1 DBIM: linking antecedents of behavioural and habitual change with varying levels of design strategies.

Table 1 Energy impact behaviours of cold appliance use and consumer surveys on energy wasted for each of the four behaviours.

Energy impact behaviours	Research community/reference
Door openings
Door openings were responsible for between 1% and 3% of the total electricity use	Market Transformation Programme (2007), Böhmer et al. (1998) cited EuP report (Stamminger et al. 2007)
A 12-s door opening caused the energy impact of 9–12.4 Wh	Saidur et al. (2002)
The effect of 20 door openings of a 200-l fridge with a 5-s opening time was 8% (2.2 W)	Mennink and Berchowitz (1994)
20 door openings a day increased electricity use between 1% and 6%	Lepthien (2000) cited EuP report (Stamminger et al. 2007)
40 door openings per day added between 50 and 120 kWh to its yearly energy use	Peart (1993)
In a young family with a single child, the door opening frequency increased the stated energy usage of a refrigerator by 49.82 kWh a year, an increase of 20% on the average energy use of a standard sized refrigerator which is approximately 250 kWh for a unit of this size	Elias (2011)
Inserting and storing hot or cold items
The influence of putting warm food in the fridge was 4–10%	FRPERC report cited MTP (2007)
The insertion of food into the fridge was responsible for 10% of its yearly energy consumption and cooling food with a temperature of 50°C used three times more energy than cooling food with a temperature of 20°C	Böhmer et al. (1998)
Thawing frozen food in the fridge could reduce the energy consumption up to 26%	Lepthien (2000) cited EuP report (Stamminger et al. 2007)
Operating temperature
1°C difference in operating temperature caused a 4% difference in energy consumption	VHK (2005)
1°C difference in operating temperature results in a 7.8% difference in energy consumption	Saidur et al. (2002)
On average, freezers were operating at 3.1°C colder than the recommended temperature ( − 18°C), leading to 17.6% more energy use	ECUEL project SAVE (1999) in France metered appliances in 98 households for a month
Surrounding temperature
Keeping a cold appliance in a non-heated storeroom rather than a kitchen gave an average energy saving of 36%	ECUEL project SAVE 1999 cited Market Transformation Programme (2007)
Fridges used 16% less energy in a room with temperature of 21–23°C instead of 25°C; 32% less with a room temperature of 17–21°C; 52% less with a room temperature of 13–17°C; a higher temperature of 32°C instead of 25°C increased the energy use by 55%	Studies cited EuP report (Stamminger et al. 2007)

Figure 2 Consumer study design.

Figure 3 Self-assessment questions relating to nine fridge and freezer use behaviours in the post-intervention questionnaire.

Table 2 A selection of energy-intensive behaviour of younger generations.

Code	Household size (person/household)	Age group	Time	Duration of opening (s)	Action
MUS-F04	Four	12–18	07:25:43–07:26:53	70	Son left the door open while making sandwiches
		12–18	07:36:07–07:36:53	46	Son took a container out and spent 46 s deciding and selecting fruit for his lunch
MUS-F07	Four	12–18	18:28:08–18:28:23	15	Daughter searched inside but took nothing out
MUS-F12	Five	5–11	15:56:43–15:57:09	26	Daughter spent 26 s pouring juice with door widely open
MUS-F14	Four	5–11	18:23:09–18:23:26	17	Daughter spent 17 s trying but failed to reach yoghurts on the top shelf
			18:23:36–18:24:06	30	Daughter moved a stool to the fridge, opened the fridge and stood on the stool to transfer yoghurts to the third shelf, which was easy for her to see until her father came to help
MUS-F17	Five	12–18	15:48:12–15:48:37	25	Son left the door open while pouring juice and drinking and kicked the door to close
			16:05:47–16:06:08	21	Son opened the fridge three times within 5 min to make his quick meal after school
			16:07:37–16:07:59	22
			16:10:12–16:10:20	8
MUS-F18	Five	12–18	08:11:09–08:12:02	53	Daughter searched, decided and discussed with her brother what need to be taken out
		Three children aged 12–18	08:26:19–08:27:07	48	Children forgot to put items back to the fridge and it took parents 48 s to return them back to the fridge

Figure 4 Use condition of the accessories of the fridge and/or freezer.

Figure 5 Facilitators were needed when transferring items.

Figure 6 BreakFAST BOX.

Figure 7 Behaviour constraints – the big container.

Figure 8 Bottle drawer.

Figure 9 Displaying the content.

Figure 10 A removable condiment tray.

Figure 11 Taking the tray out to the table.

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