Assisted Shifting of Electricity Use

Abstract

Shifting is an energy-conserving interaction strategy for moving energy consumption to times where it is sustainably favorable. This interaction strategy is attracting increasing interest within sustainable HCI studies. While most of these consider how interactive technology can change household behavior, only few report on how shifting is experienced in everyday life when assisted by automation. In this study, we investigate an interactive technology that assists households to shift electricity consumption to times when electricity is cheap or more sustainable. Our study was conducted as a long-term field deployment for 6 to 18 months with eight households, each living with an interactive prototype that shifts running times for a heat pump within user-defined boundaries. Our findings show that managing heat pumps towards assisted shifting was well-received by all households because it was a convenient way to shift electricity consumption. Shifting electricity use facilitated price savings of 6.8% to 16.9%. Nevertheless, our findings also reveal a conflict between the system design, and how householders actually interact with their heating system and experience assisted shifting. Based on the eight households' experiences we present three overall themes of convenience, control, and complexity that each describes different aspects of long-term real-life use of automatic technology assisting households to shift electricity use. We discuss the broader implications of these findings and the role of design and future sustainability technology in everyday life.

Power to the Electric Car People: The Infrastructuring of Charging

“…In relation to the engaged and tinkering drivers, HCI studies show similar tendencies of people who like to tinker with technology and invent their own creative and playful solutions to problems in the home (e.g., [16,17,41]). For example, in investigating heat consumption practices, Jensen et al [16] describes the 'proactive' consumer as people who like to engage in their heat consumption and play around with their heat settings.…”

“…In relation to the engaged and tinkering drivers, HCI studies show similar tendencies of people who like to tinker with technology and invent their own creative and playful solutions to problems in the home (e.g., [16,17,41]). For example, in investigating heat consumption practices, Jensen et al [16] describes the 'proactive' consumer as people who like to engage in their heat consumption and play around with their heat settings. As argued by Strengers [40], these consumers are often first movers and can be described as 'resource men', that is, rational users that will go an extra length to solve their problems, regardless of constraints such as individual resources.…”

Designing Data Interactions for Sustainable Consumption

“…passively observing a representation of consumption patterns and adjusting according to set values for sustainable consumption), and most often through eco-feedback technology (e.g. [5,46,78,80,92,121,136]). For example, Froehlich et al [46] designed and evaluated a water usage display for individual household members.…”