User Innovation in small-scale renewables

1. Käyttäjäinnovaatiot uusiutuvan
energian teknologioissa
Otavan opisto
Maailmanvalloituksen perusteet –kurssi
9.3.2013
Jouni K. Juntunen
Väitöskirjatutkija
Aalto yliopisto, Kauppakorkeakoulu

2. What is (user) innovation?
• Innovation according the Oslo Manual (OECD):
Technological product and process (TPP) innovations comprise
implemented technologically new products and processes and significant
technological improvements in products and processes. A TPP innovation
has been implemented if it has been introduced on the market (product
innovation) or used within a production process (process innovation). TPP
innovations involve a series of scientific, technological, organizational,
financial and commercial activities.
• User innovation:
Innovation by consumer users (individual end-users or user communities)
or intermediate users (e.g. user firms) rather than by suppliers (producers
or manufacturers).

3. User Innovation

4. Lead User
• von Hippel (1986) • Bilgram, Brem & Voigt (2008)
– Ahead of an important market – Being ahead of a market trend
trend – High expected benefit
– Expect high benefits from – User investment
innovating
– User dissatisfaction
– Speed of adoption
– Use experience
– Total period of use
– Number of different disciplines
– Product related knowledge
• Belz, Dodita& Moysidou (2012) – Frequency of use of information
– Social benefit sources
– Professional background or hobby

5. User Innovation Research

6. This talk
• What are our findings in user innovation research so far
– What kind of innovations
– What is the value of these innovations
– What are the implications
– How community helps to innovations to develop
– How (some of these) innovations proliferate

7. User innovation in renewables
• User innovation has been documented to occur in
– Biomass heating systems and solar collectors in Austria (Ornetzeder
and Rohracher, 2006)
– Wind turbine cooperatives in Denmark (Jorgensen and Karnoe, 1995;
Karnøe, 1996)
– Energy efficient buildings in Germany (Ornetzeder and Rohracher,
2006
– Straw bale housing in the US (Seyfang, 2009)
• Finland as a ―hard case‖
– No large producers—no ―supplier ecology‖
– Wide availability of district heating systems and low energy and
electricity price backed by recent pro nuclear power decisions
– Weak signs of renewable energy activism that could explain user
inventiveness

8. What, where and how significantly users
invent renewable energy technologies in
residential homes?

9. Data & Methods
• The main Finnish forums www.lampopumput.info, and www.maalampofoorumi.fi ,
www.pellettikeskustelu.fi
– E.g. Heat pump forum (www.lampopumput.info): 202 875 posts, 12 700 threads by over
3943 registered users in 5 years, by Nov 2012 viewed over 55 000 000 times
• Sampling: overview of all major categories by going through 40-100 thread headings
and following 5-20 threads in detail per category
• Coverage: Key threads such as those in ―own modifications and improvements‖
where user designs and alterations were centered, 1206 discussion threads in total
• Semi-structured Interviews:
– 30-120 minutes
– 35 users
– 5 companies
• Analysis: posts and interviews coded for inventions, background, support given and
received, learning, forum activities, development pathways,
• Evaluation: The found user inventions by three experts

10. User inventions in Finland
• 105 inventions in heat
pumps
• 87 in wood pellet burning
systems
• User system level designs
• User modifications
• User hacks, add-ons,
relocating, repurposing

12. DIY Air-Water-
Heat-Pump & Self
made control
logic

13. Air Heat Pump Diagram
1-2 Installation location
3 Installation conditions
4-12 Melting mechanism of bottom
cover
13-16 Melting mechanism of collector
outdoor coil
17-20 Add-on for the outdoor unit
21-26 Channelling of the water out of the
unit
27-30 Handling water outside of the unit
31 Refrigerant fluid
32-35 Hot water tank
36 Water circulation
37-51 Repurposing (air-to-air pump to
air-to-water)
52 Repurposing of air-to-air to
geothermal pump
53 Repurposing swimming pool HP
to Air-to-water HP
54 Repurposing of internal unit
55 Utilization of cooled air from
outdoor unit
56-60 Add-on for internal unit
61 Mechanical structure
62-65 Sensors in internal unit
66-75 Add-on for monitoring and
controlling the overall system
76-79 System level design

14. Ground Source Heat Pump Diagram
1-8 Add-on for monitoring and controlling the
overall unit performance
9-12 Add-on for monitoring ground heat
exchanger
13-17 Coil location or modified use of coil and well
18 System level design
19-20 Water piping
21-22 Well
23 Add-on for control logic
24-25 External hot water tank as add-on
26 Heat distribution system

15. Wood Pellet Diagram
1-11 Burner
12-22 Pellet Boiler System
23-24 Burner Control
25-27 Pellet Auger
28-32 Cyclon
33-37 Indoor silo
38-46 Outdoor silo
47-51 Measurement
52-60 Automation
61 Exhaust gas vacuum
62 Hot water tank
63-86 Other pellet burning systems
87 Pellet Production

16. Summary of Innovation rating: 3 specialist reviewers
Inventiveness Ease of
Implementation
Diffusion Potential Energy Saving
Potential

17. Correlations
• Inventive modifications were thus evaluated as more difficult to
implement but had higher diffusion potential than incrementally inventive
solutions.
• The inventions that resulted in higher energy savings were also more
difficult to implement and had less diffusion potential.

18. What, where and how significantly
citizens invent ?
• In all three technologies users are able to invent in practically all parts and
subsystems of the technology: capacity invent considerable
• Few inventions new to the world, commercialized / widely proliferated
• The most user inventors built solutions that had one or several facets that
would have rendered them useless for mass producers of the systems
• A reason for why these improvements have been neglected in mass
products even when they give clear benefits to users
• User inventiveness capitalizes on locally appropriable possibilities, where
downsides do not matter, can be ignored or compensated locally
• As elsewhere highly concentrated activity, less than 0.5 % involved in
actively inventing and adopting modifications

19. Implications for Technology development
• Examine the inventions from the perspective of what
needs to be done to proliferate them to new local
markets
• Invite ‗lead-users‘ into ideation workshops to chart the
future tech. development trends
• Importance of modularity and adaptability for allowing
tailoring

20. Supporting role of user run Internet
forums in user innovation

21. Internet forums are used by corporates
to activate lead users to co-create and
innovate

22. Internet forums vs. innovative Internet
forums
“lämpöpumput.info is a rather conservative site and [it is]
not nearly as welcoming and inventive as people in free-
energy forum or pelletforum… [but] e.g. free-energy forum
doesn’t give much help for development work for there are
too few folks in there”
(an user inventor in AHP and wood pellets)

23. Deepening engagement: Monitoring the
performance

24. Deepening engagement
• ―Thanks for clear information. In this area [ground circuit] it feels that when
one grasps one thing, you just end up with further questions‖ (user, GHP
forum)
• ―Without this forum I would have faced huge problems with this unit. I doubt
that I had proceeded building this further. It [forum] has been of great help.‖
(An inventive lead-user)
• ―I have rather given more to the forum than taken from it, that‘s the
direction‖…‖I have tried to instruct guys who do this (DIY project),
especially in dimensioning so that they get it working and one does not go a
too far a stray.‖ (This user is semi professional and currently making
designs to small local heat pump manufacturer-reseller)

25. Getting the means needed: Exchanging parts,
tools and services

26. How Internet Forums support citizen
inventiveness
• Forum size and diversity core to effective support; hinges on purchase and scaling
support, troubleshooting, assembler and reseller presence etc.
• Comparative data & Parts and services exchange: inadvertent support for innovative users
• Learning environment within heat pump ecosystem for users, pro-ams and professionals
alike; ―legitimate peripheral participation‖ (lave & wenger, 1991)
• Boundary infrastructure (Bowker & Star, 1999) that allows multiple orientations to enter,
legitimately co-exist vs. ―centrist‖ OSS.
• Few citizen inventors ―born‖ but most ―grow‖ with others by learning deeper competences.
• ―User runness‖, active segmenting moderation to retain quality, anonymity and multiple
communication modes … easily knocked out as experimental environment.
• Collective memory and encouragement.

27. Finnish User inventions in heat pumps – 4
examples
User Interaction arena Producer
User-1: Ground Meeting
source heat pump to a Relative‘s coolant applicance
house without water SME
central heating: Air
heat pump inside unit
as a convector. Idea
of ‖GAHP‖
Internet forum On sale in Finland.
User-2: Turning Air
SME manufactures on
Heat pump to Air Posted extensively at the
order.
water heat pump (at forum, DIY AWHP becomes
10-20% cost) popular hack among users
User-3: AWHP Posted at the Forum
function can be and news spreads
logged and remote
control with computer
or cell phone. An Email discussion Producer X in China.
addition to initial Product not in range.
Idea revealed to a Chinese
AWHP user design
manufacturer as next to all
primary HP manufacturing in
User-4: Dual source China
heat pump that uses
ground source in the Producer Y in China in
winter and air when
Catalogue
the same city.
air warmer than Product added to selection
ground. ‖DGAHP‖ (Alibaba.com)

28. von Hippel's User innovation
books
http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/books.htm

29. One more book
recommendation
about "social
entrepreneurship"
Classic Success
Story: Body Shop

30. Thank you !