Line Valdorff Madsen defended her PhD thesis “Energy consumption in the comfortable home: practices, perceptions and conventions” on 21 April 2017.

In the thesis, Line Valdorff Madsen investigated a central purpose of energy use in daily life in houses: the aim of creating a comfortable home. The thesis investigated how comfort is perceived by residents as part of everyday practices in the home and how this relates to their energy consumption and the material structures of houses. Through this qualitative study the thesis contribute to broaden understandings of comfort, beyond thermal comfort, to include more aspects of daily life in homes: warmth and cold, air, light and material stuff. The research shows that comfort is bodily sensed and socially interpreted in everyday practices. Domestic comfort is constituted from social and material elements of homes and therefore ideas of comfort and homeliness are closely intertwined. In this way notions of home and the materiality of a house and its technologies influence the perceived comfort of residents, and thereby their energy consumption.

If you want to read more about Line and her work visit this link.