research-article

Everyday activities and energy consumption: how families understand the relationship

Authors:

Carman Neustaedter,

Aaron MahAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1183 - 1192

https://doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466153

Published: 27 April 2013 Publication History

Abstract

Energy consumption is a growing concern and it is important to inform families of their consumption and how they might reduce it. We conducted an interview study that focuses on the existing routines of families and how they currently understand their power and gas consumption based on standard utility bills. We also investigated how this understanding ties to their everyday activities as might be recorded on their calendars. This allowed us to assess calendars as an artifact for energy consumption awareness. Our results show that many people relate changes in energy consumption to high-level effects such as weather and temperature and not necessarily their own everyday activities. Events on calendars may aid this understanding but people do not currently record enough information on their calendars to make a strong tie. This suggests that if calendars are to be used as artifacts to aid energy consumption understanding, digital calendars need to provide support to include more energy-related information, including both activities and patterns of consumption.

References

[1]

Abrahamse, W., Steg, L., Vlek, C., Rothengatter, T. A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25(3), (2005).

[2]

Bartram, L., Rodgers, J., and Woodbury, R. Smart Homes or Smart Occupants? Supporting Aware Living in the Home, Proc. INTERACT, IFIP (2011), 52--64.

Digital Library

[3]

Bartram, L., Rodgers, J., Muise, K. Chasing the negawatt: visualization for Sustainable Living, IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, 30(3), 8--14 (2010).

Digital Library

[4]

Chetty, M., Bernheim Brush, A. J., Meyers, B. R., Johns, P., It's Not Easy Being Green: Understanding Home Computer Power Management, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2009), 1033--1042.

Digital Library

[5]

Chetty, M., Tran, D., and Grinter, R. Getting to Green: Understanding Resource Consumption in the Home, Proc. Ubicomp, ACM Press (2008).

Digital Library

[6]

Desjardins, A. and Wakkary, R., How Children Represent Sustainability in the Home, Proc. IDC, ACM Press (2011), 37--45.

Digital Library

[7]

Fisher, C., Feedback on household electricity consumption: A tool for saving energy? Energy Efficiency, 1(1): 79--104, 2008.

[8]

Froehlich, J., Findlater, L., and Landay, J. The Design of Eco-Feedback Technology, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2010).

Digital Library

[9]

Froehlich, J., Larson, E., Campbell, T., Haggerty, C., Fogarty, J., and Patel, S. HydroSense: Infrastruture-Mediated Single-Point Sensing of Whole-Home Water Activity, Proc. Ubicomp, ACM Press (2009).

Digital Library

[10]

Froehlich, J., Findlater, L., Ostergren, M., Ramanathan, S., Peterson, J., Wragg, I., Larson, E., Fu, F., Bai, M., Patel, S., and Landay, J., The Design and Evaluation of Prototype Eco-Feedback Displays for Fixture-Level Water Usage Data, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2012).

Digital Library

[11]

Gustafasson, A. and Gyllensward, The Power-Aware Cord: Energy Awareness through Ambient Information Display, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2005).

Digital Library

[12]

He, H., Greenberg, S., and Huang, E. One Size Does Not Fit All: Applying the Transtheoretical Model to Energy Feedback Technology Design, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2010), 927--936.

Digital Library

[13]

Holmes, T. Eco-Visualization: Combining Art and Technology to Reduce Energy Consumption, Proc. Creativity & Cognition, ACM Press (2007), 153--162.

Digital Library

[14]

Kempton, W., and Layne, L. The consumer's energy analysis environment, Energy Policy, 22(10), (1994).

[15]

Kim, Y., Schmid, T., Charbiwala, Z., Srivastava, M. B. ViridiScope: Design and Implementation of a Fine-Grained Power Monitoring System for Homes, Proc. Ubicomp, ACM Press (2009), 245--254.

Digital Library

[16]

Kincaid, C., Dupont, P., and Kaye, A. R., Electronic calendars in the office. ACM Transactions on Offices, ACM Press (1985), 89--102.

Digital Library

[17]

Kelley, J. F. and Chapanis, A., How professional persons keep their calendars: Implications for computerization. Journal of Occupational Psychology. 55, (1982).

[18]

Kjeldskov, J., Skov, M., Paay, J., and Pathmanathan, R., Using Mobile Phones to Support Sustainability: A Field Study of Residential Electricity Consumption, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2012), 2347--2356.

Digital Library

[19]

Mankoff, J., Matthews, D., Fussell, S. R., Johnson Leveraging Social Networks to Motivate Individuals to Reduce their Ecological Footprints, Proc. HICSS, (2007).

Digital Library

[20]

Neustaedter, C., Domestic Awareness and the Role of Family Calendars, PhD Dissertation, University of Calgary, Canada, (2007).

Digital Library

[21]

Neustaedter, C. and Brush, A. J., "LINC-ing" the Family: The Participatory Design of an Inkable Family Calendar, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2006), 141--150.

Digital Library

[22]

Neustaedter, C., Brush, A. J., and Greenberg, S. A Digital Family Calendar in the Home: Lessons from Field Trials of LINC, Proc. Graphics Interface, ACM Press (2007).

Digital Library

[23]

Neustaedter, C., Brush, A. J., and Greenberg, S. The Calendar is Crucial: Coordination and Awareness through the Family Calendar, ToCHI, 16(1), ACM Press (2009).

Digital Library

[24]

Payne, S. J. Understanding Calendar Use, Journal of Human Computer Interaction, 8(2), 83--100.

Digital Library

[25]

Petersen, J. E., Shunturov, V., Janda, K., Platt, G., Weinberger, K. Dormitory residents reduce electricity consumption when exposed to real-time visual feedback and incentives, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 8(1), 16--33 (2007).

[26]

Pierce, J., Odom, W., and Blevis, E. Energy Aware Dwelling: A Critical Survey of Interaction Design for Eco-Visualizations, Proc. OzCHI, ACM Press (2008).

Digital Library

[27]

Plaisant, C., Bederson, B., Clamage, A., Hutchinson, H., and Druin, A. Shared Family Calendars: Promoting Symmetry and Accessibility, ToCHI, 13(3), ACM Press (2006).

Digital Library

[28]

Riche, Y., Dodge, J., and Metoyer, R. Studying Always-On Electricity Feedback in the Home, Proc. CHI, ACM Press (2010).

Digital Library

[29]

Rodgers, J. and Bartram, L. Exploring Ambient and Artistic Visualization for Residential Energy Use Feedback, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 17 (12), 2489--2497, (2011).

Digital Library

[30]

Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. Basics of Qualitative Research, 2nd Edition, Sage Publications (1998).

[31]

Vale, B., & Vale, R. (2010). Domestic energy use, lifestyles and POE: past lessons for current problems. Building Research & Information, 38 (5), 578--588.

[32]

Wegner, D., Raymond, P., and Erber, R. Transactive Memory in Close Relationships, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 61, No. 6, (1991), 923--929.

[33]

Woods, G., Newborough, M. Energy-use information transfer for intelligent homes: Enabling energy conservation with central and local displays, Energy and Buildings, 39, 495--503 (2007).

[34]

Steg, L. Promoting Household Energy Conservation. Energy Policy, 36, 4449--4453. Elsevier (2008).

[35]

Weiss, M., Mattern, F., Graml, T., Staake, T., Fleisch, E., Handy Feedback: Connecting Smart Meters with Mobile Phones, Proc. Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, Article No. 15., ACM Press (2009).

Digital Library

Cited By

Kuo PHorn M(2023)EcoSanté Lifestyle Intervention: Encourage Reflections on the Connections between Health and EnvironmentACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/360932530:6(1-37)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3609325
Tchatchoua NBoulus-Rødje NMitchell V(2023)Green IT Meaning in Energy Monitoring Practices: The Case of Danish HouseholdsComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)10.1007/s10606-022-09462-332:3(675-712)Online publication date: 25-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-022-09462-3
Herrmann MCostanza EBrumby DHarries Tdas Graças Brightwell MRamchurn SJennings N(2021)Exploring domestic energy consumption feedback through interactive annotationEnergy Efficiency10.1007/s12053-021-09999-014:8Online publication date: 29-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-021-09999-0
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Everyday activities and energy consumption: how families understand the relationship
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

Recommendations

"LINC-ing" the family: the participatory design of an inkable family calendar
CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Families must continually organize, plan, and stay aware of the activities of their households in order to coordinate everyday life. Despite having organization schemes, many people still feel overwhelmed when it comes to family coordination. To help ...
Management Review of Energy Consumption: The Energy Saving Opportunity in University Buildings
ICIBE '19: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Industrial and Business Engineering

The building is identified as one of the largest electricity user. The reduction of energy consumption in the building sector has the considerable opportunity and the significant impact on the growth of energy demand, consequently, it would reduce the ...
The Empirical Analysis on the Status and Trend of Energy Consumption in Zhejiang
ICEE '12: Proceedings of the 2012 3rd International Conference on E-Business and E-Government - Volume 02

The 12th Five-Year plan proposed to reduce energy consumption per Unit GDP by 16% as compared with 2010. Energy saving has become the important strategic task for economic development in China. The analysis on status of energy consumption is the basis ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2013

3550 pages

ISBN:9781450318990

DOI:10.1145/2470654

General Chair:
Wendy E. Mackay
INRIA
,
Program Chairs:
Stephen Brewster
Glasgow University
,
Susanne Bødker
University of Aarhus

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 April 2013

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

CHI '13

Sponsor:

SIGCHI

CHI '13: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 27 - May 2, 2013

Paris, France

Acceptance Rates

CHI '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 392 of 1,963 submissions, 20%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

Upcoming Conference

CHI 2025

Sponsor:
sigchi

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

28
Total Citations
View Citations
792
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)38
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)5

Reflects downloads up to 03 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Kuo PHorn M(2023)EcoSanté Lifestyle Intervention: Encourage Reflections on the Connections between Health and EnvironmentACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/360932530:6(1-37)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3609325
Tchatchoua NBoulus-Rødje NMitchell V(2023)Green IT Meaning in Energy Monitoring Practices: The Case of Danish HouseholdsComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)10.1007/s10606-022-09462-332:3(675-712)Online publication date: 25-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-022-09462-3
Herrmann MCostanza EBrumby DHarries Tdas Graças Brightwell MRamchurn SJennings N(2021)Exploring domestic energy consumption feedback through interactive annotationEnergy Efficiency10.1007/s12053-021-09999-014:8Online publication date: 29-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-021-09999-0
Tuomela SIivari NSvento RPaternò FJacucci GRohs MSantoro C(2019)User values of smart home energy management systemProceedings of the 18th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3365610.3365641(1-12)Online publication date: 26-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3365610.3365641
Abdallah FBasurra SGaber M(2019)A Non-Intrusive Heuristic for Energy Messaging Intervention Modeled Using a Novel Agent-Based ApproachIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2018.28861467(1627-1646)Online publication date: 2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2886146
Rasmussen MRasmussen MVerdezoto NBrewer RNielsen LBouvin NBrereton M(2017)Exploring the flexibility of everyday practices for shifting energy consumption through clockcastProceedings of the 29th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/3152771.3152803(296-306)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3152771.3152803
Singhal SOdom WBartram LNeustaedter CMival OSmyth MDalsgaard P(2017)Time-TurnerProceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems10.1145/3064857.3079122(72-78)Online publication date: 10-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3064857.3079122
Sas CNeustaedter C(2017)Exploring DIY Practices of Complex Home TechnologiesACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/305786324:2(1-29)Online publication date: 11-Apr-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3057863
Akoumianakis DKtistakis G(2017)Digital calendars for flexible organizational routinesJournal of Enterprise Information Management10.1108/JEIM-01-2016-002330:3(476-502)Online publication date: 10-Apr-2017
https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-01-2016-0023
Dillahunt TLyra OBarreto MKarapanos E(2017)Reducing children’s psychological distance from climate change via eco-feedback technologiesInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2017.05.00213(19-28)Online publication date: Jul-2017
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2017.05.002
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents