Mobile recommender application for promoting electricity saving among Iraqis (original) (raw)
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UX Assessment of Mobile Recommender App for Household Electrical Energy Savings
—In recent times, the use of mobile devices has drastically increased as a result of how feasible it is in utilizing them in solving everyday problems using several applications. One of the recurrent issues in everyday life is electricity consumption and the need for energy savings. This is an enormous issue and challenge faced by the Iraqi's Ministry of Power. Most households in Iraq lack access to information regarding electric energy consumption and the need to save and conserve energy. In addition, there is also a dearth of suitable applications that educate households about energy saving. In the light of this, this study assessed the user experience of a developed mobile recommender application for Iraqis that helps them understand the need for reduction in electricity consumption based meter readings/data supplied by users. This proposed mobile recommender app was assessed by 50 households from the point of view of ease of use, usefulness, ease of learning, and satisfaction. The study's outcome reveals that majority of the participants found that the app was easy to use, useful, easy to learn, and was satisfied with its features and functionalities. The results of the study offer some useful insights and import about the use of mobile recommender app for promoting household's energy consumption management in Iraq and also prompts a good energy savings culture and behaviour among the people.
Fostering energy awareness in residential homes using mobile devices
2013
There is considerable global effort being made towards identifying ways of reducing energy consumption to cope with growing demands. Although there is potential for energy saving in many sectors, our focus is on reducing energy consumption in residential homes. We have developed a system which combines home automation and energy usage monitoring technologies. The system offers a range of tools designed for mobile devices to assist users with monitoring their energy usage and provides mechanisms for setting up and controlling home appliances to conserve energy. In this paper we describe our system and a user study we have conducted to evaluate its effectiveness. The findings of the study show the potential benefits of this type of mobile technology.
The use of apps to promote energy saving: a study of smart meter–related feedback in the Netherlands
Energy Efficiency
Feedback systems with direct feedback have shown to be effective in stimulating households to change their energy consumption levels. This research is one of the first to explore the use of apps to influence household energy use. Compared to dedicated in-home displays, smartphone/tablet apps provide a low-cost and simple design solution for making energy feedback available. This research consisted of three studies conducted with different samples within a selection of households where a smart meter was installed as part of the smart meter implementation program in the Netherlands. First, for a period of 16 months, electricity and gas consumption levels were measured for a large sample of households (n = 519) divided into an application user group and a reference group. Second, questionnaires (n = 270) provided insight in how people used the applications and to what extent the applications increased households' insight in their energy consumption and stimulated behavior changes. Third, interviews (n = 12) were held to obtain more in-depth insight. In the sample with measured energy consumption, we did not find a significant reduction in electricity and gas consumption during this research. Yet in the questionnaires, the application users reported more energy awareness and indicated to have made more investments and changes in their behavior than the reference group. Most app users started using the first app they found and did not explore the other options. The interview results indicate that, after an initial learning period, the app was used to monitor the electricity and gas consumption levels, rather than to lower them. In line with other research into feedback, the interview results suggest that the apps could be more effective with information that is more actionable and meaningful with respect to one's own specific situation and goals for the household. Further exploration is recommended with respect to how the design of such apps can encourage a wide audience not only to monitor their consumption, but also guide them in taking action to change their consumption levels.
EZ phone: persuading mobile users to conserve energy
Mobile persuasion is using a mobile device to motivate people to change their behavior in a positive way. Thus there is the potential in investigating how mobile technology could motivate people to change their behavior towards energy use in a home setting. In this paper we report a pilot study that was conducted to determine which of three visualization media (text, audio, multimedia) on a mobile device (EZ Phone: Energy Zaving Phone) can be the most effective in persuading users to conserve energy in a home setting. The design of the device was presented in the form of a video prototype. The study was carried out as a between subjects design with the type of medium the independent variable and persuasion was measured in the form of subjective perception. Our results show that text (SMS) is perceived to be the most persuading and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) the least persuading. We also present our thoughts on the implications to design and future development of our ongoing re...
Analysis of Electricity User Behavior: Case Study Based on Results from Extended Household Survey
Energy Procedia, 2015
Greater emphasis on the individual consumers' engagement in energy efficiency has been integrated into the concept of a comprehensive European energy policy. Households, as well as the people living there are very different and one of the important factors is to assess a consumer's behavioral aspects. Conducting surveys is the most common way to obtain this type of information. Our research is based on JSC "Latvenergo" pilot project "Promoting energy efficiency of household using smart technologies" (further-pilot project) where 500 Latvian households were installed with smart meters at the beginning of 2013. The first results have shown that the average electricity consumption in the target group decreased by 23 %. In order to explain the results, research was carried out by analyzing 1) what kind of behavioral and motivation factors influenced changes in electricity consumption; and 2) to what extent changes in electricity consumption were affected by smart meters. Three multiple linear regression models were tested on the basis of first survey data of 430 households and 8 selected households, who were reinterviewed in March-April, 2014. The results show that changes in electricity consumption are not influenced only by technical aspects, but also by users' psychological aspects, such as subconscious and belonging to the social group.
Electricity savings in households with everyday IT, report from at field experiment
This paper analyzes the effect of supplying online feedback by SMS-text messages and email about electricity consumption on the level of total household electricity consumption. An experiment was conducted where 1,452 households were randomly allocated to three experimental groups and two control groups. Feedback was supplied throughout 2007 to members of the experiment groups who accepted the invitation, and data on consumption of electricity for 2006 and 2007 collected for all participants and control group members. 30% of the households invited to receive feedback accepted the invitation. The estimated effects of the feedback on consumption of electricity are estimated to be in the range of 2-3%. The feedback technology is cheap to implement and therefore likely to be cost-effective
Applied Energy, 2014
This paper purposed to reduce total electricity consumption of households in a cold area, Japan. We implemented an information provision system to install four households for one year. The system provided the information of electricity consumption 15 min interval via websites. We considered temperature effects to electricity demand and made a benchmark for evaluation. Consequently, a tendency of reduction of electricity consumption could be seen in two households.
Urban Household Electricity Consumption: A Study of Providing Information for Energy Policy Planning
International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, 2020
Providing information comprehensively regarding drivers for household electricity use is important for power system operation and more realistic planning for energy conservation policies. This paper has focus to provide information related to household electricity consumption and behaviour of users in Makassar, Indonesia. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed for survey to get data from users such as family characteristics, house building, owned energy efficient appliances (EEA), user behaviour in using appliances, obstacles in practising energy saving, etcetera. To derive more information, obtained data were also analyzed using regression approach. Some important information from survey results are demand for larger installed electricity power capacity (IEPC) is increased and mainly for house with IEPC 900 VA. For EEA, lamp, refrigerator, and air-conditioner (AC) are mostly owned by respondents. Obstacles in practicing daily electricity saving include such as users do not...
PowerPedia: changing energy usage with the help of a community-based smartphone application
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 2012
When it comes to conserving electricity, it is crucial for users to know how much energy is consumed by individual appliances. However, the technical feedback provided by existing energy consumption feedback systems in the form of dry numbers and intangible units is not appropriate for most users. To address this shortcoming, we developed PowerPedia, a system that provides behaviorinfluencing feedback over and above pure consumption values. By integrating a community platform-a Wikipedia for electrical appliances-PowerPedia enables users to identify and compare the consumption of their domestic appliances with that of others. It thus helps users to better understand their electricity consumption and take effective action to save electricity.
Behavioural Change for Efficient Usage of Electricity at Homes
2020
Electricity is not visible or tangible yet always available in our houses. The only way users can keep track of electricity consumption is to look at meters or monthly bills. Energy-monitoring systems promise to help users understand their consumption by visualizing and displaying the consumption data in a meaningful way. However, they are not successful in changing users’ behaviours and sustaining their intentions. The current paper presents a suggestion to promote behavioural change by adapting Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory to stratify the target user groups and apply user-centred design approach when developing a prototype of conceptual electricity monitoring system. Initially, users’ awareness and knowledge levels were measured by a questionnaire identifying and stratifying the target groups who were interested in saving energy in their homes. For one of these groups who are ready to act on an opinion, users’ electricity usage behaviour and their intentions were captured ...