THE IMPACT OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOURS AND SCHEDULE IN LEADING SINGAPORE PUBLIC HOUSING TOWARDS SUBSTAINABILITY

Abstract

Singapore’s energy consumption has increased by 33.88% the past 10 years from 2005 to 2015 (EMA, 2016) and residential developments play a significant share in the total energy consumption. The Singapore public housing, Housing Development Board (HDB) and other Singapore’s statutory boards have continuously developed new sustainable developments such as eco- precincts to encourage residents to move towards sustainable living and reduce energy consumption (Cho, 2015). However, the energy consumption in these eco -precinct still continue to rise over the years. Based on the literature review, human energy consumption behaviours are the largest contribution that influence the continuous rise in energy consumption. This study aims to investigate three things: how energy consumption behaviours influence the households’ energy consumption; the factors that motivate and demotivate residents to participate in energy-saving measures by conducting “on site” surveys; and the effectiveness of the first Singapore eco-precinct, Treelodge@Punngol in punggol, as a good role model for the HDB by comparing the survey results with another non- precinct executive HDB, Punggol Breeze. Through the surveys and the findings, it was found that energy consumption behaviours such as habits, convenience, personal comfort, hygiene, time and cost are the factors that are prioritized over energy-saving, resulting in the ascending energy consumption. The survey results also show that large percentage of the residents in both precincts have high energy awareness. However, residents in the eco- precincts, Treelodge, has a slightly higher energy awareness as compared to Breeze.