The behaviour of a building's users may be at least as important as its design when it comes to energy use, according to new research from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The UK promises to reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, part of which will be achieved by all new homes being zero-carbon by 2016. But this report shows that sustainable building design on its own — though extremely important—is not enough to achieve such reductions: the behaviour of the people using the building has to change too.

The study suggests that the ways that people use and live in their homes have been largely ignored by existing efforts to improve energy efficiency, which instead focus on architectural and technological developments.

"Technology is going to assist but it is not going to do everything," explains Katy Janda, a UKERC senior researcher, "consumption patterns of building users can defeat the most careful design." In other words, old habits die hard, even in the best-designed eco-home.

Another part of the problem is information. Households and bill-payers don't have the knowledge they need to change their energy-use habits. Without specific information, it's hard to estimate the costs and benefits of making different choices. Feedback facilities, like smart meters and energy monitors, could help bridge this information gap by helping people see how changing their behaviour directly affects their energy use; some studies have shown that households can achieve up to 15 percent energy savings using smart meters.

Social science research has added a further dimension, suggesting that individuals' behaviour in the home can be personal and cannot be predicted—whether people throw open their windows rather than turn down the thermostat, for example. Janda argues that education is the key. She calls for a focused programme to teach people about buildings and their own behaviour in them.