Exploring innovative community and household energy feedback approaches

Abstract

Most research to date on the provision of energy feedback to households has focused on assessing the efficacy of numeric-based feedback. This paper describes the application and evaluation of more visual energy feedback techniques (carbon mapping, thermal imaging) at different scales, alongside traditional methods (web-based energy and environmental visualization platform, home energy reports) delivered through community workshops, home visits and the internet, across six low-carbon communities in the UK. Overall, most of the feedback approaches were able to engage and raise awareness amongst the householders. Whilst carbon mapping was felt to be aimed more at community groups and local councils by providing evidence of past and future community action, displaying carbon maps at community workshops helped to show that others were also engaged in energy action. Thermal imaging was successful in engaging individual local residents through both community workshops and home visits, especially when included in the home energy reports. This stimulated discussions on future energy savings through building fabric upgrade. However, the data-driven web-based platform had limited uptake due to online log-in requirement and information overload. Such insights are useful for those involved in scaling up the deployment of energy feedback to encourage energy demand reduction.

Beyond energy feedback

“…Even studies that provide energy feedback in social settings, such as to community groups (e.g. Burchell et al, 2016;Gupta, Barnfield, & Gregg, 2017), or which combine feedback with other forms of information, such as on social norms (e.g. Harries et al, 2013), still rest principally on the provision of new information as the driving force of changed behaviour.…”

Addressing Behavioural Technologies Through the Human Factor: A Review

“…Although previous works offer promising insights for encouraging energy conservation, new visualization platforms need to be studied [112]. For this reason, a wide range of augmented devices seeks to directly interact with the user and offer new ways to deliver information [113]. Tangible visualization through augmented everyday objects emerge as a very illustrative and innovative option to perform this user-level interaction by reinterpreting the functionality of a common object.…”

Framing Smart Meter Feedback in Relation to Practice Theory

“…Building trust and establishing a community partnership based on social, face-to-face interaction in the community e.g., in the form of home energy assessments have been recognised as key success factors in some community-based energy interventions [75,76]. Personal contacts with intermediaries have been linked to better effectiveness of feedback interventions [77]. In the light of practice theories, community-level activities could also be integrated into smart meter feedback initiatives, as they would help to create and support a community of practice in which social learning takes place, ideas are shared and utilising smart meter feedback could take hold as a practice, which would provide peer-support and help to build new competences.…”