Sharing conventions for energy efficient lighting?

摘要

Since 2009 a part of the European Commissions’ Eco-designdirective has been levelled at domestic lighting, and with astrong focus on energy efficiency, only the most energy efficientlight emitting diodes (LEDs) are to outlive the regulationwithin near future. However, the EU Commission struggleswith the realization of a lower uptake than expected, particularlyof LEDs. Studies show that this may be due to energy efficiencynot being the only, or even primary, concern that peoplehave when illuminating the home. However, the studies do notsay much about how certain lighting patterns are maintainedor may change. In this paper, aspects connected to the latterwill be explored through a case study of a number of householdsin an ecological community in Roskilde municipality inDenmark. The study will be compared to another case studyof lighting patterns in number of low energy, however moreconventional households, situated in Stenl?se municipality,also in Denmark.Although some aspects concerned with illuminating thehome seems considered ‘common’ across the cases, the actualdeployment, and reasons given for the deployment, differ betweenthe two contexts. The deployment of energy efficientlighting technologies such as CFLs and LEDs is higher withinthe ecological community in Roskilde than in the detachedlow energy houses in Stenl?se. Policy-wise, this is interestingas both contexts of households have the same access to publicinformation about energy efficient light, and the residents inboth contexts should presumably be aware of energy and environmentalaspects as they are living in houses that are results ofenvironmental considerations.Therefore this paper will focus on how certain practices involvinglight may be socially reproduced across time and space,but also questions why some patterns related to performing socialpractices seem to differ due to particular living arrangementsand learning processes through sharing certain conventions.