Keywords

1 Energy Feedback Objects

Non-residential buildings, such as offices or universities, contribute a large share of the energy consumption in Europe’s building sector. Various estimates indicate that even over 30 % of that energy could be saved by changing the behaviours of building occupants (Lopes et al. 2012). To achieve such change, occupants would only need to adjust their daily practices to avoid unnecessary waste of energy, which typically doesn’t require much additional effort or time, or diminish occupants’ comfort. Some examples of such actions can be turning off lights and other equipment when not in use, turning down heating instead of opening windows in the winter when too warm, or ventilating by opening windows instead of using air conditioning on a mild summer day. However, it is difficult for building occupants to change their daily routines, and, once changed, to maintain them without falling back into old habits.

It is often assumed that providing occupants with feedback about their energy consumption will encourage them to understand their own contribution to energy consumption and stimulate them to save energy as a result. However, providing such feedback in the form of raw data is known to be too difficult for occupants to interpret. There are many examples where raw data has been replaced by easy to read data visualisations, communicated through metaphors, translated to specific tips, or even turned into playful interfaces and games (Spagnolli et al. 2011). However, even such approaches often have short-lived impact on occupant behaviour, as they are often not embedded into complex social practices taking place in building environments, and providing individual feedback to occupants proves insufficient. The challenge of developing energy-feedback designs which may trigger lasting behaviour change by engaging social practices of building occupants was taken up by students following the “Interactive Technology Design” (ITD) course at the IDE faculty of TU Delft (Aprile and van der Helm, 2011).

Four groups of students received a design brief to design new kinds of energy feedback solutions that would be naturally integrated into daily practices of non-residential building occupants. The building of the IDE faculty was used as a test case, and each group was assigned to one of the rooms of this building as a design context. These included a two-person office, an open office, a flexible design studio space and a large lecture room. Students iteratively conceptualised, prototyped and tested the solutions. Throughout this process, which consisted of 20 workdays during a full semester, they sought to gain a deep understanding of the intricacy of the studied situations, leading to revisions and improvements of their concepts. Ultimately, four concepts and working prototypes were realised.

The first concept is called “Volt” (Fig. 25.1). It is a desktop power hub with three sockets, designed for a flexible workspace. When a person working around the table connects her laptop or phone charger, the device indicates the amount of energy flowing into the socket. When another person connects to the same hub, the energy starts to flow to her socket, and stops flowing to the socket of the first person using the Volt device. By tilting the device, the flow of energy can be changed back, or a balanced output can be reached. The device is filled with granular material and tilting it additionally provides tactile feedback, giving users the feeling of electrical energy physically flowing from one outlet to another. Because the interaction with the device is very playful, the annoyance of losing power has been diminished. Instead, the use of the device triggers people to think about the energy they consume, to develop curiosity about exact energy consumption and the origin of the energy, and provides an opportunity to discuss these issues with others around the work desk.

Fig. 25.1
figure 1

The Volt power socket hub provides light feedback to indicate electric energy consumption and enables users to share energy with each other by physically tilting the device

Full size image

The next concept is a solution for providing energy feedback in the studio space. Students found that inefficient control of lights was the main contribution to wasting energy by occupants in the studio. “Akiko” (Fig. 25.2) is a device designed to replace the light switches, and to become a “host” of the room. Akiko monitors and controls the lights in the room. It also uses light to express “emotion” corresponding to its understanding of the efficiency of the use of light in the room. Users wishing to work in the room pick up Akiko at the entrance. The room lights up sufficiently for users to move around it, and when placed on a desk, Akiko turns on the stronger lights above. The longer the lights are on, the more “upset” Akiko gets, and the more erratic the emitted light pattern becomes. When Akiko is left alone at the table, the intensity of this pattern reaches its maximum, reminding users to bring it back to the dock at the entrance and by this to switch the lights off. However, the aim of Akiko is not to punish the users of the space by sending annoying reminders, but to create an emotional bond with them. By tapping Akiko, its users can “assure” it that the energy is put by them to good use, and Akiko calms down and its light pattern returns to its mild state.

Fig. 25.2
figure 2

The Akiko prototype uses energy monitoring and control to create an emotional bond between the user and the studio lighting

Full size image

The concept presents an alternative to traditional light switches, where occupants of a room build a social relationship with the room based on the room’s energy consumption. In short, the Akiko device helps to assure users that energy is used for a good purpose while thinking about energy as a limited resource. It makes them feel appreciated when saving energy and enforces a habit which is likely to be carried on also in other rooms not equipped with Akiko.

The “Neo” concept addresses the situation of a two-person office. Unlike the studio or flexible office context, the two-person office is assumed to be fully occupied by the same two persons. In such a case, more detailed feedback on energy can help the users to analyse their daily practices. The specific dynamics of two persons occupying a room are considered so as to stimulate them to mutually encourage one another to save energy. Neo was designed to provide office users with an ability to set a daily goal for using energy in the office. It is an aesthetically attractive device hanging on the wall, which uses a diaphragm mechanism to show the status of the daily energy use (Fig. 25.3). When approached, it displays an exact value of energy that has been used during the day. In this way Neo provides office occupants with an attractive energy display, integrating an abstract and explicit feedback and bringing the energy use into the social sphere of the office context.

Fig. 25.3
figure 3

Neo is an aesthetically attractive wall-mounted device that allows office occupants to set an energy goal for the day and provides both ambient, and detailed feedback on current energy consumption at the office

Full size image

The fourth concept called “Hotspot” addresses the situation of energy consumption in the lecture room (Fig. 25.4). A typical lecture room is continuously heated or cooled, regardless whether it’s unoccupied, occupied by a small audience, or used to full capacity. In response to this problem the students designed a new chair for the lecture room. The chair is individually heated or cooled by rubbing the armrest. In addition, the chair promotes the clustering of the occupants to optimise the use of energy since the local warmth around a single chair is increased by adjacent warmed occupied chairs. In this way, the concept also supports people to cluster in groups with particular indoor climate preferences. In the Hotspot concept, feedback on energy consumption is formed through requiring a regularly repeated effort of the occupant to trigger heating or cooling, and the effect of energy used can be instantly felt and appreciated, not only by one user, but the entire group of users in her direct proximity.

Fig. 25.4
figure 4

The prototype of the Hotspot project involved four lecture room chairs that would warm up when rubbed, but only if people sat next to each other

Full size image

For occupants of nonresidential buildings, energy is a resource that is very difficult to perceive, and, as a result, also difficult to conserve. The four concepts described in this section present a spectrum of alternative approaches for not only increasing occupants’ awareness of energy use, but also for triggering emergence of new kinds of social practices around the goal of saving energy. The initial user tests performed by the students during the development of the projects and during their public exhibition received a positive reception. This encourages further investigation of energy feedback solutions that, instead of only passively providing users with energy-use information, actively engage them in rich, interactive experiences.