Understanding Energy Consumption at Work

Abstract

Most work around technological interventions for energy conservation to date has focussed on changing individual behaviour. Hence, there is limited understanding of communal settings, such as office environments, as sites for intervention. Even when energy consumption in the workplace has been considered, the emphasis has typically been on the individual. To address this gap, we conducted a study of energy consumption and management in one workplace, based on a combination of workshops with a broad range of stakeholders, and quantitative data inspections. We report and discuss findings from this study, in light of prior literature, and we present a set of implications for design and further research. In particular, three themes, and associated intervention opportunities, emerged from our data: (1) energy wastage related to "errors"; (2) the role of company policies and the negotiation that surrounds their implementation; and (3) the bigger energy picture of procurement, construction and travel.

Data Work: How Energy Advisors and Clients Make IoT Data Accountable

“…Dillahunt's studies of low-income rented properties has shed light on social issues that prevent energy-related improvements, for example, such as lack of control and ownership (Dillahunt et al 2009), conflicts between landlords and tenants (Dillahunt et al 2010), and lack of connectedness in the community (Dillahunt and Mankoff 2014). Studying a workplace setting, Bedwell et al (2016) have also highlighted the ways in which employees collaboratively manage energy consumption. Our work is also informed by and speaks to research concerned with the relationship between sensor data and its intelligibility in a domestic context (e.g., Chetty et al 2010;Dong et al 2015;Pousman et al 2008).…”

'A bit like British Weather, I suppose'

“…Researchers have also explored displays that incorporate a 1 https://www.leedon.io/faq.html After Before Gas Electricity Figure 1. The change in gas usage patterns before (top) and after (bottom) reporting that the building was being heated for an extra day, compared to corresponding electricity usage (from [2], with permission).…”

“…range of feedback strategies, including comparing the energy efficiency of teams in a production setting [35], tracking and visualising individuals' resource use in offices [31], and playfully identifying wasteful individuals such that they can be "busted" [37]. As recent research highlights, these displays are limited in that they often target energy consumption related to individual employees and can lack real-world evaluation [2]. The sustainable HCI community has been criticised for a focus on the individual, limiting the potential to address broader energy savings [25].…”

“…Our design was motivated by recent work about energy consumption in the workplace that highlighted errors related to energy waste as an under-investigated issue in sustainable HCI, at least in terms of explicit focus [2]. Bedwell et al…”

“…Although some work has been carried out to understand the unique tensions and barriers to sustainable behaviour in workplaces (e.g. [23,15]), little empirical work with workplace occupants has been reported in the literature to date [2]. While most commonly prior work focussed on the display of energy consumption data, our own research builds on work around the relationship between energy and temperature [2,7], which suggests that temperature may be a useful frame for engaging office staff in energy issues.…”