People and Energy: A design-led approach to understanding everyday energy use behaviour (original) (raw)
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Reducing Domestic Energy Consumption: A User-Centred Design Approach
Energy use within the UK domestic sector is on the increase, causing significant environmental and social stresses. This increase in energy consumption is not only due to the rising proliferation of technological devices within the home, but also to their context of use, and the behaviours and habits attributed to and enacted through their operation. To reduce energy consumption we need to engage with householders in meaningful and effective ways to prompt more efficient behaviour. This paper examines the role of design in influencing a change in energy using behaviours within the context of social housing. Drawing upon the findings of an interdisciplinary literature review the authors outline the impact of domestic comfort practices on energy use. The emerging field of Design for Sustainable Behaviour is mapped out with relevant behaviour models and theories, and factors which could inform the development of design interventions to promote energy reducing comfort practices in social housing are discussed. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the types of interventions which could prove effective in reducing energy consumption in social housing whilst still delivering comfort.
Understanding Energy behaviour-A Necessity for supporting Domestic Energy conservation through Design Anneli selvefors department of product and production development division design & human factors chalmers University of Technology domestic energy consumption is continuing to increase and the need to decrease consumption is growing more evident. in this research, two studies were conducted to further the understanding of domestic energy behaviour and increase the knowledge of how energy conservation can be supported. The first study was carried out as an interview study to explore both factors that influence people's energy behaviour and strategies people currently have adopted for reducing consumption. The second study was a field trial that assessed the extent to which an energy feedback system could support households in reducing their consumption. The findings show that many different factors, i.e., factors related to the person, the activity, and the society, influence people's domestic energy behaviour as well as their engagement in reducing their energy consumption. as these factors collectively set the preconditions for people's energy behaviour, it is vital to take into account the interconnection of the different factors when aiming to support energy conservation. for systems and products to be successful in supporting energy conservation, they need to match the preconditions in a way that enables people to reduce consumption while still satisfying their everyday needs and goals. as this research have indicated, energy feedback systems can support motivated people who have the ability and possibility to reduce consumption, but will be a less successful support system for people whose consumption is governed by preconditions that they cannot, or will not, change. a holistic understanding of people's preconditions and their energy related activities is thus required in order to develop successful products, services, and systems that enable, facilitate, or encourage more people to reduce their domestic energy consumption.
The potential for domestic energy savings through assessing user behaviour and changes in design
2007
The paper explores the possibility of looking at user behaviour as a way of creating new energy efficient products. It does this by first looking at the energy demand of 6 households then discusses the possibilities and potential of identifying the products with the highest potential for improvement. This is achieved by considering those with high energy use in combination with the difference from its theoretical minimum energy level and the most human interaction. The paper ends with results and discussion from a user behaviour video study of a kitchen.
Many approaches to design for energy use behavior change lump 'energy demand' together as something homogeneous, addressable primarily through quantitative feedback, rather than basing interventions on an understanding of why people use energy as they do. Our contention is that people don't set out to 'use energy': its use is a side effect of solving everyday problems, meeting needs for comfort, light, cooking, cleaning, entertainment, and so on. Judicious integration of quantitative energy use data with qualitative insights from ethnographic research can allow a much more nuanced design approach.
J. of Design Research
This paper explores how the design of domestic appliances influences people's energy use during everyday activities. Drawing on findings from an interview study with 81 informants, a variety of design characteristics were uncovered, which set preconditions for use that in different ways impede or support energy conservation. The identified characteristics concerned not only appliances' operative functions but also their interactive and communicative functions as well as people's underlying motives for using specific appliances. Addressing the full range of characteristics during the development of new appliances will highlight a variety of design opportunities 44 A. Selvefors et al. and increase the possibilities for developing appliances that support people to go about their everyday activities in less energy-reliant ways.
Aiming to miss: lessons for design research from the study of everyday energy practices
This paper argues that the historical focus of design research on the design process-designers themselves, their activities, decisions and rationale-conceals many design relevant phenomena that emerge in the use of products and systems. With regard to designing for sustainability, these phenomena become vital, since sustainability is itself a use practice. We present a set of vignettes from an ethnographic study of people's everyday energy practices, in an effort to show how consumption is grounded in the intersections of various elements including architecture, habit and social values. This gives pause to reconsider designers' roles in determining (through products and architecture) such patterns of energy use, and leads us to recommend that a different kind of scenario, i.e. one that 'aims to miss' the deliberate and intended use, may be helpful in sustainable product design. We conclude with a discussion that outlines how the study of mundane practices of use might be instructive for agendas and concepts in design research, particularly those of framing and design intent.
Home, Habits, and Energy: Examining Domestic Interactions and Energy Consumption
This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of people's everyday interactions with energy-consuming products and systems in the home. Initial results from a large online survey are also considered. This research focuses not only on "conservation behavior" but importantly investigates interactions with technology that may be characterized as "normal consumption" or "overconsumption." A novel vocabulary for analyzing and designing energy-conserving interactions is proposed based on our findings, including: cutting, trimming, switching, upgrading, and shifting. Using the proposed vocabulary, and informed by theoretical developments from various literatures, this paper demonstrates ways in which everyday interactions with technology in the home are performed without conscious consideration of energy consumption but rather are unconscious, habitual, and irrational. Implications for the design of energy-conserving interactions with technology and broader challenges for HCI research are proposed.
Assessing user behaviour for changes in the design of energy using domestic products
This paper explores the contribution that user behaviour could make to the creation of new energy efficient products. It does this by first looking at the energy demand of 6 households then discusses the identification of the products with the highest potential for improvement. This is then narrowed down to products with a high energy impact and those where a high level of human interaction and use is also evident. A model for guiding design changes based on a theoretical minimum energy level for each product is presented. The paper ends with a behaviour based design assessment procedure based on the results of the 6 household study.
Analysing domestic activity to reduce household energy consumption
This paper presents our reflections on the issue of behavioral change according to energy conservation constraints and on the status of sustainability in the design of ambient interactive systems at home. We point out how ergonomics contributes to the study of human factors underlying energy consumption. Relating to situated cognition and human computer interaction, our approach relies both on the ergonomic evaluation of feedback consumption displays and on the modeling of domestic activities in order to identify household concerns in real settings. We present empirical results to illustrate this global approach. The results of those studies allow the design of interactive systems: informative and pedagogical systems as well as pervasive and adaptive ambient systems. In our approach, sustainability is taken into account as a design criterion, as security could be, whereas the main design purpose is to aid households in their daily life in order to build a “sustainable situation”. Keywords: Models of human activity, sustainable situation, HCI, consumption feedback, sustainability, electricity consumption behavior, situated cognition
Emerging energy technologies such as smart meters and solar photovoltaic systems (solar PV) are changing our relationship to energy. While there is increasing evidence that households with solar PV on their roof tend naturally to shift their energy consumption in time to match their local generation, what do people carry out and how ICT can support them to optimize their consumption? In this paper we present a year-long user study to understand social practices around laundry routines and local energy generation. We highlight four challenges for the next generation of home energy management systems.