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.

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

8. REWARDING BEHAVIOUR
“The Ambient Canvas”, Bartram, 2010
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)
Thursday, 30 May 13

10. DOES ECO-FEEDBACK WORK?
Thursday, 30 May 13

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

12. WHY DOESN’T ECO-
FEEDBACK WORK?
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

14. OUR FOCUS
How energy connects to 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)
Thursday, 30 May 13

16. 4 FLATS X 8 INDIVIDUAL STUDY BEDROOMS, 2
SHOWERS, 2TOILETS, KITCHEN + CORRIDOR
Thursday, 30 May 13

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
Thursday, 30 May 13

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
Thursday, 30 May 13

20. Thursday, 30 May 13

21. Thursday, 30 May 13

22. Thursday, 30 May 13

23. Thursday, 30 May 13

24. Thursday, 30 May 13

25. Thursday, 30 May 13

26. Not discussed further here
Thursday, 30 May 13

27. 06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Timestamp
Electricpower(Watts)
Lighting
Refrigeration
Entertainment & IT
Other cooking appliances
Oven
Thursday, 30 May 13

28. WHERETO FOCUS?
06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Timestamp
Electricpower(Watts)
Lighting
Refrigeration
Entertainment & IT
Other cooking appliances
Oven
Thursday, 30 May 13

29. Thursday, 30 May 13

30. ALERT
Thursday, 30 May 13

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

39. SENSING + INTERVIEWS
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

44. A STEPTOWARD REFOCUSED
INTERVENTIONS
Centred on the impact of food & cooking practices
Thursday, 30 May 13

45. THE “HOBCAM”
BedroomBedroom
Bedroom
Bedroom
Kitchen Bedroom
Thursday, 30 May 13

46. Thursday, 30 May 13

47. READY?
Thursday, 30 May 13

48. Thursday, 30 May 13

49. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
Thursday, 30 May 13

50. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
One cook, single portion
Thursday, 30 May 13

51. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
Components used
Back-right
Back-left
Thursday, 30 May 13

52. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
Foods observed
Jarred sauce
Pasta
Thursday, 30 May 13

53. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
... and quantities
(160g)
(100g)
Foods observed
Jarred sauce
Pasta
Thursday, 30 May 13

54. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
Cooking method
Boiling
Heating
Thursday, 30 May 13

55. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
Cooking method
Heating
Boiling
(no lid)
(no lid)
Use of lid?
Thursday, 30 May 13

56. COOKING SESSION
ANNOTATION
Changes in control
position
Thursday, 30 May 13

57. COOKING: QUANTIFIED
Thursday, 30 May 13

58. RELATIVE IMPACTS
Cooking Energy Emissions (22%)
Indirect Emissions (78%)
Thursday, 30 May 13

59. Other food
RELATIVE IMPACTS
Cooking Energy Emissions (22%)
Waste
Other
devices
Indirect Emissions (78%)
Thursday, 30 May 13

60. DESIGN AREAS
Diet Change
Technique & Method
Thursday, 30 May 13

61. TECHNIQUE AND
METHOD
Photo: reutC (via Flickr)
Thursday, 30 May 13

62. FRYINGVS. GRILLING
33m 30s
170g
9m 50s
113g
0.118 kWh 0.965 kWh
Average 1.2 kWh/kg Average 6.7 kWh/kg
Thursday, 30 May 13

63. PASTAVS. PASTA
41 mins16 mins7 mins
Thursday, 30 May 13

64. PIZZAVS. PIZZA
27 minutes
...53
minutes
before
cooking
Oven switched on
85 minutes
36 minutes later...
...oven switched off
Pizza ready
55 minutes
Thursday, 30 May 13

65. 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

69. DIET
Pasta
sauce
Thursday, 30 May 13

70. DIET
High Impact
Low Impact
Pasta
sauce
Thursday, 30 May 13

71. A CONVENIENT DIET
“typical student
food”
“all those kind of
really easy things”
0
20
40
60
80
jarred
sauce
chicken
pastavegetables
sausages
chipspizzabreadbaked
beans
ricepotatoes
tortellini
baconfrozen
veg.
tinned
tom
atoes
eggnoodles
m
ince
beef
steakreadym
eal
fishsoup
61
70
87
88
41
43
21
9217
33
8
15
40
22
8 29
27
10
9
8 10
7
EmbodiedGhgemissions(kgCO
2
e)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
jarred
sauce
chicken
pastavegetables
sausages
chipspizzabreadbaked
beans
ricepotatoes
tortellini
baconfrozen
veg.
tinned
tom
atoes
eggnoodles
m
ince
beef
steakreadym
eal
fish
61
69
87
66
41
43
20
8817
32
8
15
41
21
8 29
27
10
9
8 10
EmbodiedGhGemissions(kgCO2
e)
Thursday, 30 May 13

72. A CONVENIENT DIET
“typical student
food”
“all those kind of
really easy things”
0
20
40
60
80
jarred
sauce
chicken
pastavegetables
sausages
chipspizzabreadbaked
beans
ricepotatoes
tortellini
baconfrozen
veg.
tinned
tom
atoes
eggnoodles
m
ince
beef
steakreadym
eal
fishsoup
61
70
87
88
41
43
21
9217
33
8
15
40
22
8 29
27
10
9
8 10
7
EmbodiedGhgemissions(kgCO
2
e)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
jarred
sauce
chicken
pastavegetables
sausages
chipspizzabreadbaked
beans
ricepotatoes
tortellini
baconfrozen
veg.
tinned
tom
atoes
eggnoodles
m
ince
beef
steakreadym
eal
fish
61
69
87
66
41
43
20
8817
32
8
15
41
21
8 29
27
10
9
8 10
EmbodiedGhGemissions(kgCO2
e)
• Repeated moderate- to high-impact foods
Thursday, 30 May 13

73. MEALS
Pasta
sauce
Thursday, 30 May 13

74. MEALS
Pasta
sauce
Thursday, 30 May 13

75. CHICKEN, PASTA,AND SAUCE
0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
Region 1
Total: 3.57 Kg CO2e
Thursday, 30 May 13

76. GRILLED POTATOES
0
0.1
0.3
0.4
0.5
Potatoes Cooker
Total: 0.62 Kg CO2e
Thursday, 30 May 13

77. •Make indirect emissions more explicit to “cooks”,
help keep infrequent high-impact foods
“special” (Grimes, 2008), 20-30% indirect
emissions; 17-24% overall GHG
Thursday, 30 May 13

78. ORGANIZATION
Cooking &
Eating
Thursday, 30 May 13

79. ORGANIZATION
Cooking &
Eating
Thursday, 30 May 13

80. ORGANIZATION
Cooking &
Eating
Thursday, 30 May 13

81. ORGANIZATION
Cooking &
Eating
Thursday, 30 May 13

82. ORGANIZATION
Cooking &
Eating
Thursday, 30 May 13

83. “SIMPLE” & “EASY” =
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

94. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Cooking Energy
Diet Change
Technique
Indirect Emissions
Thursday, 30 May 13

95. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Cooking Energy
Diet Change
Technique
Indirect Emissions
Thursday, 30 May 13

96. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Cooking Energy
Diet Change
Technique
Sharing
Indirect Emissions
Thursday, 30 May 13

97. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Cooking Energy
Diet Change
Technique
Sharing
Indirect Emissions
Thursday, 30 May 13

98. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Cooking Energy
Diet Change
Technique
Sharing
Indirect Emissions
Thursday, 30 May 13

99. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Thursday, 30 May 13

100. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Thursday, 30 May 13

101. INTERDEPENDENCIES
Cooking Energy
A Different Diet
Technique & Method
Sharing
Indirect Emissions
Thursday, 30 May 13

102. DISCUSSION
Thursday, 30 May 13

103. RESOURCE MANAGERS?
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

108. BEYONDTHE OBVIOUS
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