Every second Wednesday, the Circular Industries Talks are organised at the Circular Industries Hub. This edition, Evert van Beek, PhD Researcher at Delft University of Technology in the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, presented about his research into everyday experimentation that happens in homes that are renovated with heat pumps as part of the energy transition. Curious for more? Take a look at the recording at the bottom of this page.
Experimentation and bottom-up innovation with sustainable automated home technologies in the Dutch energy transition
As part of energy transitions, we need new and more efficient heating technologies in more houses (e.g., heat pumps). These new technologies have a disrupting effect on everyday life within the household. But, these disruptions can also be seen as potential sites of innovation in practice.
Households should be seen as creative actors in the energy transition.
In this presentation, Evert van Beek reports on an ethnographic study of the disruptions and consequent reconfigurations that occur in households when new heating technologies are introduced. Evert van Beek sheds new light on reconfigurations on the household level of the energy transition, and highlight how disruptions hold the potential for innovation, which can be stimulated through design and other professional practices. Van Beek discusses how reconfigurations in household practices are related to, and might impact, other practices including professional decision making. Such innovations can be identified, supported, and scaled up in the energy transition. This changes the role of technology developers, policy makers and residents.
Key take-aways:
- Sustainable technologies disrupt everyday life in the home.
- These disruptions hold the potential for innovation.
- Design tools and methods can be helpful in identifying, supporting, and scaling up innovations.
- Households should be seen as creative actors in the energy transition.
- This requires a creativity supporting involvement of decision makers on several levels.
Curious about the whole story? Listen to Evert van Beek, about experimentation and bottom-up innovation with sustainable automated home technologies in the Dutch energy transition.
The Circular Industries talks
The goal of the Circular Industries talks is to share knowledge across Leiden, Delft and Erasmus and to complement and deepen the knowledge already available within the Circular Industries Hub. The talks are organized on Wednesday morning from 10:00 to 11:00. The talks are online (Microsoft Teams).