Context
We live in a world in which many share the goal to live sustainable and every year new regulations are made to lower our national environmental footprint. For example, after 2020 all new buildings need to be nearly energy neutral. Therefore, the building sector is rapidly innovating and new solutions are launched to the market every day. All those new innovations support achieving the goal for 2020, but don’t we forget something? Someone? Exactly! While everyone focusses on the energy efficiency of those buildings, we tend to forget that actual people need to live there and that they have needs and desires of their own. Therefore, this report is all about the residents.

Research
Research is done to find out how residents currently experience their energy neutral homes. The results display the needs of these residents in the process of adapting their lifestyle towards their energy neutral homes. The conclusion that can be drawn is that residents miss information that is about them, how they can live, rather than about the systems and how those function. They do not care about a Comfort or Eco mode on the heat pump, they care about taking a nice and warm shower. They also do not care about high insulation and ventilation in their home, they want the feeling of fresh air in their homes.

Design
To support residents of energy neutral homes in starting to live energy neutrally and forming a comfortable lifestyle, two concepts are developed in this project. The first concept is a welcome box that residents receive when they just moved in their homes. The aim is to create a moment in which residents stop with what they were doing and think of their new living situation. The box contains a shower timer, a pair of socks and some infographics. Those are meant to make the residents think about their new situation and to provide additional information focussed on how they can live and deal with their home in certain situations.
The second concept is an online portal. Residents can log in on this portal and find information about different aspects of their home, like heating, cooling, ventilation, etc. This information focusses on how residents can live comfortably and energy neutrally and are communicated as visually as possible by adding illustrations and videos.
On the insight page, residents can get insights in the data that are available about their home. For example about how much energy is generated by their solar panels and how much energy is consumed by the household and the installation.
Lastly, residents can use the portal when they have questions, they can find contact information and easily browse through the frequently asked questions.
All in all, these two concepts are developed for the residents of energy neutral buildings and will support them in forming their own comfortable and energy neutral lifestyle before, during and after moving in their energy neutral homes.