Sensors, sense-making and sensitivities: UK household experiences with a feedback display on energy consumption and indoor environmental conditions

Abstract

Smart metering of domestic energy use allows consumer feedback through in-home displays (IHDs), websites or smart phone apps. Research has illustrated the need for additional 'sense-making' information to help households make informed energy-related decisions. This study investigates how household members respond when energy consumption data is integrated with information on indoor environmental conditions (IECs) and coupled with advice on energy saving actions. An integrated system of energy meters and IEC sensors was trialled in 19 predominantly social housing properties in the Midlands (England). Households were provided with a tablet computer and feedback was provided via a dedicated 'Energy Dashboard' web-based software application (app). The app was designed in collaboration with the social housing provider to display electricity and gas consumption data as well as data on three IECs: relative humidity, carbon dioxide and temperature. This paper draws on the findings from two rounds of semi-structured interviews with participants. All respondents using the app reported that they made use of the IEC data within the sensemaking process, finding temperature and humidity to be useful in linking energy consumption, activities and household conditions. Interpretation of IEC data tended to increase with time as understanding increased. However, different users 'noticed', 'interpreted' and 'enacted' information differently as they integrated this with other sources of information, such as feedback from household members and experiential knowledge. The findings suggest that, whilst incorporating greater contextual information, such as IECs, into feedback displays can help users make sense of domestic energy consumption, the outcomes of the sense-making process will be different for different households. Nevertheless, the provision of such information appears to support householders to make decisions about their energy management that they feel appropriate for their household's wellbeing needs, within the bounds of their agency.

A Transformational Change Framework for Developing Ecologically Embedded Manufacturing

“…The UK is suitable for investigations related to ecological embeddedness for five major reasons: (1) the UK has developed the first practical framework and guidance for organisations to implement circular economy principles Standards 2017) indicating that the UK is adopting a progressive approach to CE; (2) famers' markets have the longest history in the UK where they were conceived in 1997 (Kirwan 2004); (3) the UK is still part of the European Union and so is bound by the strict rules and regulations related to protecting the environment; (4) producers at the Loughborough Farmers' Market are subject to vetting by the local council which represents the operating structure (Klimek et al 2018); and (5) consumers are well-educated, technologically savvy and increasingly concerned with environmental issues (Walley et al 2000;Gatersleben et al 2019;Wood et al 2019).…”

Tackling Algorithmic Transparency in Communal Energy Accounting through Participatory Design

“…[22, p. 1] -are based on an iterative cycle of "framing, elaborating and reframing data" (see Tellioğlu et al [36, p. 2], citing Klein et al [19]). As Wood et al show in their study of sense-making processes of users of an eco-feedback tool for households, incorporating contextual information with the numeric and graphical results of such displays can help improve user's understanding, but the conclusions drawn from these processes can still differ from person to person [41]. This underscores the 'wicked' nature of the problem of transparency even more: while certain measures might improve transparency for given aspects of a system, the conclusions drawn by the target audience might be very different depending on their backgrounds and motivations.…”

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“…Dashboards, which tend to have a multitude of visualisations, have, as of yet, rarely been examined in the context of sense-making. Notable examples include a study looking at energy dashboards for households [63] which highlights that, while providing context helps users to make sense of the information, situational context will lead to different results: "the outcomes of the sense-making process will be different for different households". The study aimed to situate awareness of energy consumption and related measures within their everyday lives.…”

“…Usability testing [6] helps to ensure that dashboards can be used but does not address how to make a dashboard useful to citizens. Numerous studies have called for the need to look at the impact of dashboards on users [21,57,58,63] yet it is still an under-researched area. Questions remain about how to support users' sense-making 1 and what prevents this in the first place.…”