In this talk we report on our recent studies of energy use and cooking in the home. Using a pioneering method combining fine grained accounts from embedded sensing combined with qualitative interview data we uncover how everyday life intersects with energy demand and GhG externality. Our work enables us to shed light on where eco-feedback interventions could be aimed and raises questions about existing approaches based on 'smart grid' enabled energy portals and in home energy displays. In the second half of the talk we suggest how the detailed study of cooking reveals new opportunities for HCI and Ubicomp design.
Tata AIG General Insurance Company - Insurer Innovation Award 2024
Quantifying our understanding of energy use itu may 2013
1. QUANTIFYING OUR
UNDERSTANDING OF
ENERGY USE AND GHG
EXTERNALITY IN
EVERYDAY LIFE
Adrian Friday, Mike Hazas,
Adrian Clear, Janine Morley and
Oliver Bates
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/energychoices/
Thursday, 30 May 13
2. OUTLINE
• Report on our current work studying energy use in shared student
accommodation (specifically energy, cooking)
• Quantified dual of empirical ‘sensing’ and qualitative methods
• Aim to convince you that
• eco-feedback interventions (e.g. in home displays/IHD) are not
enough
• interventions must focus on reconfiguring energy intensive
‘services’ supporting everyday life, example of ‘cooking’
Thursday, 30 May 13
3. VERY BIG PICTURE
(Anderson & Bows. 2008 PhilosophicalTransactions A of the
Royal Society. 366. pp. 3863-3882)
Thursday, 30 May 13
4. VERY BIG PICTURE
(Anderson & Bows. 2008 PhilosophicalTransactions A of the
Royal Society. 366. pp. 3863-3882)
Year
2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Emissionsofgreenhousegases(GtCO2e)
0
20
40
60
80
2015 peak
Thursday, 30 May 13
5. VERY BIG PICTURE
(Anderson & Bows. 2008 PhilosophicalTransactions A of the
Royal Society. 366. pp. 3863-3882)
Year
2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Emissionsofgreenhousegases(GtCO2e)
0
20
40
60
80
2015 peak
Year
2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Emissionsofgreenhousegases(GtCO2e)
0
20
40
60
80
2020 peak
Thursday, 30 May 13
6. VERY BIG PICTURE
(Anderson & Bows. 2008 PhilosophicalTransactions A of the
Royal Society. 366. pp. 3863-3882)
Year
2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Emissionsofgreenhousegases(GtCO2e)
0
20
40
60
80
2015 peak
Year
2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Emissionsofgreenhousegases(GtCO2e)
0
20
40
60
80
2020 peak
Year
2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Emissionsofgreenhousegases(GtCO2e)
0
20
40
60
80
2025 peak
Thursday, 30 May 13
7. SMART METERS & ECO-FEEDBACK
CurrentCost, DIY Kyoto, Enistic, e.g. http://www.diykyoto.com/
Thursday, 30 May 13
9. periods. The “Compare” tab displays a bar graph that Water Portal, and what usage patterns did they exhibit?
Figure 1. The Water Portal.
677
Dubuque energy portal
ENERGY USE AS IGNORANCE?
e.g. Dubuque portal, (Erickson, 2013)
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11. 5-15% SAVINGS POSSIBLE, BUT SHORTLIVED.
WHY IS IT (IN)EFFECTIVE?
Hazas, Mike and Friday,Adrian and Scott, James (2011)
doi:10.1109/MPRV.2010.89
Thursday, 30 May 13
13. “grounded in a basic
assumption that home dwellers
lack information” (Pierce, 2010),
[...] required if they are
understood as “micro-resource
managers” (Strengers, 2011)
disconnect between the types
and methods of feedback, and
“the realities of everyday life”
?
Thursday, 30 May 13
15. LIFE RATHERTHAN
CONSUMPTION OF ENERGY
• Shift focus towards the broader functions energy supports
(e.g. making hot drinks, having clean clothes, entertaining
oneself)
• => qualitative + quantitative understanding (Firth, 2008)
• Goal: to help explain the significant variation in energy
consumption across similar homes (Hackett & Lutzenhiser,
1991, Gram-Hanssen, 2010)
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16. 4 FLATS X 8 INDIVIDUAL STUDY BEDROOMS, 2
SHOWERS, 2TOILETS, KITCHEN + CORRIDOR
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17. RETROFIT SENSING
4 x OWL Single-point sensing +
RFXCOM
129 x Socket-level sensing (Plugwise)
42 x Motion/light, 38 x temperature/
humidity
“Hobcam” (motion triggered camera)
Experience sampling + interviews
Thursday, 30 May 13
18. 20 DAYS
all common areas (kitchens, bathroom, corridor)
22 participants opted in to in-bedroom monitoring
11 face to face follow up interviews
a few near-time ‘mini-accounts’ (questions posed by text/email)
3 8 5 6
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19. 00:00 03:00 06:00 09:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 00:00
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Time of day
Power(kW)
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
AGGREGATE USE
10 minutes median bins
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31. ALERT
IHDs focus on instantaneous load (Strengers, 2011), need ‘area
under the curve’, (c.f. Costanza, 2012)
Thursday, 30 May 13
32. LIGHTING
• 16-29% of the energy in each flat
• bedrooms are comparable (~10 kWh)
• but communal areas more varied (46-85 kWh)
• A mix of conventions, expectations, meanings and actions
around the lighting in the flats
Thursday, 30 May 13
33. NOT SIMPLY UTILITARIAN
• Communal lights often left
on (no surprise...)
• But, corridor switch-offs in
“Green” (“otherwise
they're just on for no
reason”)
• Navigation (“well I really
don't like the dark.When I
come out of my room it's
dark and I'm like arrrr”)
• Meanings around comfort
and security
Thursday, 30 May 13
34. ENTERTAINMENT AND IT
• Big variation: 3.5% to 34% of the energy
• room inventories
• most had laptops; three PCs
• 9/12 male participants had extra audio, video, or gaming
devices
• A room’s energy attribution corresponded roughly to its
inventory
Thursday, 30 May 13
35. COMPUTING
• discrete periods of use, vs. consistently on
• laptops vs. other: order of magnitude less
• Blue: two server PCs; four with AV/gaming
• differing conventions for power management
(Chetty, Brush et al. 2009)
Thursday, 30 May 13
36. IT: ONE SERVICETO RULE
THEM ALL?
• multi-purpose: looking up lecture notes, doing coursework,
music, reading the news, keeping in touch with friends
• low energy way to ‘do entertainment’
• significant overlap of these activities
• challenges in attributing which practices a service supports
beyond disaggregation by appliance, (c.f. Gupta, 2010)
Thursday, 30 May 13
37. ‘CONSTELLATIONS’ OF
DEVICES
• multiple devices clustered together
• e.g.“computer” a bunch of devices served by two sockets
• supporting a service like gaming or watchingTV
• often makes sense to bundle the energy of these devices, and
attribute to a single service, like entertainment (“I’ve got my
hard drives, my router, my two monitors, my stereo and my
desktop, that’s all hooked together.”)
Thursday, 30 May 13
38. ENTERTAINMENT
• socialising: casual and
planned group activities
(“We spend a lot of time in
each others rooms just
talking and watching telly”)
• access to digital media
infrastructures
• boredom and filling time has
resource implications (“first
year I used to play lots of
games”)
• ‘connoisseurs of
entertainment’
Thursday, 30 May 13
40. SENSING + INTERVIEWS
1. exposes service-reliance across areas of practice (personal and
group entertainment, paid work, education, staying in touch, pre-
boiling water for pasta...)
Thursday, 30 May 13
41. SENSING + INTERVIEWS
1. exposes service-reliance across areas of practice (personal and
group entertainment, paid work, education, staying in touch, pre-
boiling water for pasta...)
2. identifies systems of devices and constellations of services (beyond
appliance disaggregation), we might tackle together
Thursday, 30 May 13
42. SENSING + INTERVIEWS
1. exposes service-reliance across areas of practice (personal and
group entertainment, paid work, education, staying in touch, pre-
boiling water for pasta...)
2. identifies systems of devices and constellations of services (beyond
appliance disaggregation), we might tackle together
3. resource measurements can be actioned more effectively, taken in
context (not motion triggered lights, but nightlights...?)
Thursday, 30 May 13
43. SENSING + INTERVIEWS
1. exposes service-reliance across areas of practice (personal and
group entertainment, paid work, education, staying in touch, pre-
boiling water for pasta...)
2. identifies systems of devices and constellations of services (beyond
appliance disaggregation), we might tackle together
3. resource measurements can be actioned more effectively, taken in
context (not motion triggered lights, but nightlights...?)
4. facilitates higher-level reconsideration of how service might be
reconfigured for sustainability
Thursday, 30 May 13
66. • Which calls into question technique, and cooking skills in
play (Short, 2003)
Thursday, 30 May 13
67. • Which calls into question technique, and cooking skills in
play (Short, 2003)
• But, also how food often takes a back seat to other
activities
Thursday, 30 May 13
68. • Which calls into question technique, and cooking skills in
play (Short, 2003)
• But, also how food often takes a back seat to other
activities
• More efficient methods & techniques (reduce timing
“errors” / “forgetfulness”), 10-20% cooking energy; 2-4%
overall GHG
Thursday, 30 May 13
84. “SIMPLE” & “EASY” =
• Short cooking time (< 20mins) (~70%)
Thursday, 30 May 13
85. “SIMPLE” & “EASY” =
• Short cooking time (< 20mins) (~70%)
• Single cooker component (69%)
Thursday, 30 May 13
86. “SIMPLE” & “EASY” =
• Short cooking time (< 20mins) (~70%)
• Single cooker component (69%)
• Few “ingredients”
Thursday, 30 May 13
87. “SIMPLE” & “EASY” =
• Short cooking time (< 20mins) (~70%)
• Single cooker component (69%)
• Few “ingredients”
• Repetitive
Thursday, 30 May 13
88. “SIMPLE” & “EASY” =
• Short cooking time (< 20mins) (~70%)
• Single cooker component (69%)
• Few “ingredients”
• Repetitive
• Single portion
Thursday, 30 May 13
89. “SIMPLE” & “EASY” =
• Short cooking time (< 20mins) (~70%)
• Single cooker component (69%)
• Few “ingredients”
• Repetitive
• Single portion
• Cooking for oneself (90%)
Thursday, 30 May 13
90. SOCIAL COOKING
“we keep saying we’re
going to cook together
but something always
gets in the way”
“one person would go
out or one person
would not want what
we wanted”
Thursday, 30 May 13
91. “WHATEVER’S INTHE
CUPBOARD”
“I like vegetables and
salads and stuff like that
but when I buy it it just all
goes off...”
“um, risottos, stuff, pasta and
sauce whatever, um
shepherds pie ...whatever
ingredients we have”
Thursday, 30 May 13
92. •Encourage more shared cooking, help overcome
barriers or discover opportunities for sharing
(impact?)
LOWER IMPACT COOKING?
Thursday, 30 May 13
93. WE’VE LOOKED AT INDIRECT FOOD
EMISSIONS AND COOKING ENERGY
EMISSIONS
both be addressed to some extent through cooking and the
way it’s organised in everyday life, but...
Thursday, 30 May 13
104. RESOURCE MANAGERS?
• negotiable: feedback can expose things already seen as wasteful
• ...resulting changes tend to result in savings of about 10%
(Darby, 2006)
Thursday, 30 May 13
105. RESOURCE MANAGERS?
• negotiable: feedback can expose things already seen as wasteful
• ...resulting changes tend to result in savings of about 10%
(Darby, 2006)
• non-negotiable: external factors dictate the possible range of
actions, and which of them are affordable/rewarding/valued
(Strengers, 2011)
Thursday, 30 May 13
106. A BROADERVIEW
• sustainability research needs to take the broader view that it
needs
• quantifying the impacts of everyday life
• and understanding how it connects and supports services
and practices in the home
• due to the nature of variation, formative studies are always
needed, and we advocate a qualitative/quantitative approach
Thursday, 30 May 13
107. BUSY LIVES AND SOCIAL
EXPECTATIONS
• social expectations dictate things like how we need to look or
smell, which has big implications for daily practice (Shove 2003)
• powerful institutions (like employment)
• contribute to these expectations,
• tend to organise time in certain ways,
• ... making other ways of doing things more difficult
Thursday, 30 May 13
109. BEYONDTHE OBVIOUS
• Eco-feedback interventions need to respect barriers to change
in the context of everyday life
Thursday, 30 May 13
110. BEYONDTHE OBVIOUS
• Eco-feedback interventions need to respect barriers to change
in the context of everyday life
• We posit: there are non-trivial impact reductions through
focused interventions
Thursday, 30 May 13
111. BEYONDTHE OBVIOUS
• Eco-feedback interventions need to respect barriers to change
in the context of everyday life
• We posit: there are non-trivial impact reductions through
focused interventions
• but, there is no one size fits all, we must understand each
service, and we argue for a quantitative + qualitative approach
Thursday, 30 May 13
112. BEYONDTHE OBVIOUS
• Eco-feedback interventions need to respect barriers to change
in the context of everyday life
• We posit: there are non-trivial impact reductions through
focused interventions
• but, there is no one size fits all, we must understand each
service, and we argue for a quantitative + qualitative approach
• Challenge: to design these focused interventions (in the widest
sense), and reshape norms & expectations (Dourish, 2010) -
can we go beyond 5-15%?
Thursday, 30 May 13
113. QUESTIONS?
a.friday@lancaster.ac.uk
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/energychoices
This work was funded by the UK Research Councils (EPSRC grants EP/G008523/1 and EP/I00033X/1), and the Facilities Division and Faculty of
Science andTechnology at Lancaster University. Thanks to: Darren Axe at Green Lancaster, and the student residences officer at Lancaster
University for their cooperation.
Thursday, 30 May 13