Awareness of resource consumption in the home is a key part of reducing our ecological footprint, yet lack of appropriate understanding and motivation often deters residents from behaviour change. We report on the design and implementation an in-home system that supports residents in awareness of resource use, facilitates efficient control of house systems, and encourages conservation in daily activities. Initial responses from deployments in two high-profile sustainable homes indicate the potential this holistic approach has in engaging residents in sustainable living. We present the design rationale for our approach, and discuss the challenges and opportunities we have addressed.

1. Supporting Sustainable Living:
Aware Homes and Smart Occupants
UbiComp 2010: Ubiquitous Computing for Sustainable Energy Workshop
September 26th, 2010
Lyn Bartram
Johnny Rodgers
Rob Woodbury
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living
Simon Fraser University
School of Interactive Arts + Technology
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

2. Research Framework
• Support sustainable decision-making through awareness and feedback
• Recognize that awareness alone does not equal behaviour change
• Reduce effort required to “do the right thing”
Cost > Benefit = Change
• If the perceived cost, in terms of time, effort, or money, is greater than the
perceived benefit, sustained change will not occur
• How do we lower the cost and increase the benefit?
• How do we change perceptions?
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

3. Key Principles
• Need to move from a model of expert management to one of
aware occupancy
• Enable the smart occupant, rather than building a ‘smart home’
• Integrating control and feedback technology into the home
requires new techniques and a sensitivity to the unique
constraints and affordances of a residential setting
• we can’t just import existing techniques wholesale
• we can’t “design for cardboard cutouts”
• Feedback on the wall is going to help residents answer some
questions, but not all of them
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

4. Projects
• Two major sustainable housing projects
• Have been visited by over 125,000 people
• North House (2008-2009)
• Net-positive (production > consumption) solar-powered home
• Sophisticated automation systems and passive optimization
• Placed 4th overall in the Solar Decathlon 2009 in Washington D.C.
• West House (2009-2012)
• Small footprint laneway home incorporating renewable energy
• Commercially available technology (aside from ALIS)
• Showcased at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

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9. Design Rationale
• Provide rich, real-time feedback
• Present information in contextually appropriate ways
• Enable efficient resource use by reducing control friction
• Use ambient, aesthetically-pleasing indicators of resource use
• Reduce complexity by leveraging familiar tools
• Simplify resident interaction with optimization and automation systems
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

10. ALIS: Aware Living Interface System
• Combines feedback and control systems
• Awareness + opportunity for change
• Includes at-a-glance and detailed feedback, social networking features,
embedded and mobile control, optimization and house presets
• Distributed across four platforms
• Embedded touch panels, web application, mobile application,
ambient informative art
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

11. Supporting Sustainability in the Home
Community
Resource Production
Resource Use
Feedback
Awareness
Attitude Change
Behaviour Change
Habit-Forming
Embodied
Knowledge
Sustainability
Information and Visualization Ecosystem
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

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16. Key Findings
• More information alone does not solve the problem
• we can’t expect people to check their laptop every time they have a question
• Numerous issues to be resolved concerning aesthetics, ergonomics,
visibility, and appropriate attentional requirements of feedback
• Need to support both tactical (in-the-moment) and strategic (long term)
decisions
• Automation is problematic: residents are wary of domestic systems that
make decisions for them
• need to find balance between occupant control and efficiency
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

17. Contacts and Further Information
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living
http://hcssl.iat.sfu.ca
Lyn Bartram
lyn@sfu.ca
Johnny Rodgers
jgr3@sfu.ca
http://johnny.hcssl.iat.sfu.ca
Rob Woodbury
rw@sfu.ca
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living
http://www.team-north.com
http://westhouse.sfu.ca