Our domestic energy intervention study presentation for the NORDICHI2010 conference. Please see the accompanying video of Wattsup on slideshare.net at http://www.slideshare.net/LiSC_/wattsup

1. Derek Foster Shaun Lawson Mark Blythe Paul Cairns Wattsup?: Motivating reductions in domestic energy consumption using social networks

2. Derek Foster PhD Student Lincoln Social Computing (LiSC) Research Centre University of Lincoln http://lisc.lincoln.ac.uk

3. Introduction Sustainable HCI - Motivating pro-environmental behaviour through technology-enabled feedback Social Norms - Utilising peer-pressure and social competiveness to bring about reductions in energy usage By combining above concepts we target behaviour change for energy consumption using online social applications

4. Structure Background - Domestic energy Background – Home energy monitors Method – Participants Method – Design Results Discussion Future Work

5. Domestic Energy Usage UK domestic energy accounts for approx 30% of total energy expenditure in 2008 30% Increase since the 1970’s 19% Increase since 1990 Only 1.9% of domestic energy consumed is from renewable resources UK goal of 34% carbon reduction by 2020 Climate change Source: UK Government Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR)

6. Home Energy Meters Meter location – Flats, apartments – difficult to access or inaccessible Energy is intangible Understanding traditional meter readings

8. Limited interaction

9. Closed systems with no social data sharing

10. Limited online applications

12. Pilot Study Recruited 8 households 18 day ‘within subjects’ study to measure energy usage in two conditions Social condition: participants could view their own and comment upon others’ energy usage Non social condition: participants could view only their own energy usage Research question: Can the use of social media motivate further reductions in energy usage?

13. Method - Participants Recruited lead participant for each household Regular users of Facebook for the past 12 months Given a Wattson energy monitor Asked to use

14. Method - Design Independent Variable - interaction mode, either social or non-social. Dependent Variable – amount of energy used by each lead participant, with total energy being recorded in each condition for each participant. Repeated measures design Each participant experienced both conditions, and order effects were controlled for as carefully as possible.

15. Materials - Wattson Monitor PC connectivity Bespoke data collection software developed to transmit data online Good design aesthetics (fits in with environment)

16. Materials - Wattson Monitor

17. Materials - Wattsup Application Wattsup – A Facebook application providing energy and social feedback Displays live energy data from Wattson monitor Transforms limited Wattson display into an online interactive social app Utilises Facebook social features MSDN Facebook featured application http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee384421.aspx

19. Wattsup Participatory Design User-centred design approach - focus groups and paper-prototyping to produce final interface designs

20. Wattsup Social Norms

21. Wattsup Technical Implementation

22. Wattsup Technical Implementation Recent developments in home energy monitors have simplified development of third party energy applications and raised UX quality Easier to access online energy data through devices like AlertMe monitor and Google’s Powermeter

23. Results 7 out of 8 households reduced their energy consumption when in the social condition 130KwH of energy saved – equivalent to Co2 emissions of driving a small car for 399 Km If sustained for 6 months would result in reductions of 2600KwH A Wilcoxon test showed that energy consumption was significantly lower when using in the socially enabled condition (Z= -2.1, N=8, p=0.036)

24. Results

25. Results Comments board on rankings interface Small Analysis using Grounded Theory Three main categories centred around the user experience emerged: - Banter - Engagement - Competition

26. Results Banter “how come you are at the top, cut down drastically on your cups of tea?” “energy vampire...you clearly are!!”. Diane: “I’ve turned my washing machine settings down as this uses loads...no pun intended” Alice: “I once turned down a washing machine. Wasn't pretty. It went into a cycle of depression and self-loathing before finally giving me my socks back”

27. Results Engagement Engagement included disclosure of information such as: “Left my main PC on the last two nights. Made a massive difference to my scores.” “gone down in the rankings? I´m in Spain :S” “I NEED TO STOP PLAYING PUTER! (idontwanttoidontwanttoidontwantto)”.

28. Results Competition Competition between the participants was evident in their comments: “Take’s the top spot: D” “I've been usurped”. “good to see I'm higher in the table then you rob ha ha”

29. Results Google Analytics - highlighted the differences in user interaction activity between both conditions - 263 visits in social condition vs 51 visits in non-social condition - Participants spent greatest amount of time interacting with the rankings interface

30. Results Semi-Stuctured interviews - carried out at the end of the study in participants' home - asked which condition they preferred with all preferring the social condition - willing to take part in longer studies - found the experience fun and enjoyable “I preferred the second one (socially) because I am quite competitive, it gave me further incentive. I think putting a bit of fun in it is quite important.”. “Well, this morning we unplugged EVERYTHING one by one, room by room. The reading on the wattson went down by around 450 to 970 watts. Ha, we actually enjoyed investigating this though ;)”

31. Discussion Household energy usage was significantly lower when participating in the social condition, 780KW vs 640KW - This suggests that social interaction over an online social network, such as viewing each others energy usage, comparing own usage to that of peers, and commenting on each other’s progress, can help motivate participants reduce their household energy consumption.

32. Future Work – Domestic Energy Longitudinal study Better integration in Facebook and Twitter Use contemporary energy monitors for transparent implementation

33. Future Work – Workplace Energy Looking at organisational and local authority energy usage targeting employees. Electro-Magnates project: http://www.electro-magnates.com Design a suite of social applications – including games – to support behaviour change in energy reduction in the workplace

34. Thank You! Questions?……