No abstract

Fuel poverty is a critical issue for a globally ageing population. Longer heating/cooling requirements combine with declining incomes to create a problem in need of urgent attention. One solution is to deploy technology to help elderly users feel informed about their energy use, and empowered to take steps to make it more cost effective and efficient. This study subjects a broad cross section of energy monitoring and home automation products to a formal ergonomic analysis. A high level task analysis was used to guide a product walk through, and a toolkit approach was used thereafter to drive out further insights. The findings reveal a number of serious usability issues which prevent these products from successfully accessing an important target demographic and associated energy saving and fuel poverty outcomes. Design principles and examples are distilled from the research to enable practitioners to translate the underlying research into high quality design-engineering solutions.

No abstract

There has been considerable investment in micro energy generation from both domestic consumers and small-scale providers. However, current metering arrangements and home energy monitoring products are too basic to enable real-time billing and remuneration, limiting the effectiveness of this investment. This paper describes the exploration of home energy monitors as a technical enabler to unlock the local trading potential of the investment in micro energy generation, and the human factors involved in interacting with these products that might pose obstacles to successful uptake. First, a human factors analysis of eight home energy monitors was conducted, which identified a number of usability issues. Next, a range of design concepts were developed to address the key usability problems identified, incorporate the forward-looking facility for alternative energy supply models, and stimulate further investment in energy prosumption. This study contributes an understanding of the potential of home energy monitors for transactive energy supply arrangements.

This paper will explain the process and background of the Product Design Engineering (PDE) undergraduate project in collaboration with University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum. The project asked students to actively engage with collections from The Hunterian, Scotland's oldest public museum and home to one of the finest university collections in the world. At over 200 years old, The Hunterian is one of Scotland's most important cultural assets and has been recognised as a Collection of National Significance. Throughout the project, students benefited from engagement with a number of museum professionals to support their experiential learning journey using collections [1]. Hunterian founder, Dr William Hunter's (1718-1783) education in Scotland during the Age of Enlightenment had taught him the empirical method and the importance of learning through observation and practical experience, which was the basis for the initial project investigation. Students selected items from the collection and completed the 'Ways of Looking' visual examination with the aim of understanding the context and significance of the artefacts. The next phase set students the challenge of reinterpreting their chosen object and positioning it as a future vision for a possible Hunter Quincentenary Exhibition, 500 years from the birth of Hunter in the year 2218. This future positioning posed a number of discussion topics, including, but not limited to; society, technology and ethics. These topics were to be considered as students developed their visions of the future.