Impact reduction potential by usage anticipation under comfort trade-off conditions

Well-optimized intelligent control of products and systems with a substantial energy and/or consumables demand can allow to reduce the use phase impact of these devices and systems significantly. However, depending on the usage patterns and their variability, the system efficiency and tardiness, as well as comfort-impact avoidance trade-off considerations, the effectiveness of such strategies can greatly differ. This contribution describes models for and analyses the sensitivity of the achievable impact reduction with respect to these factors, thus facilitating use phase oriented eco-design decision making. The observations are illustrated by means of a zone heating and a laser cutting machine case study.