A presentation I gave at the World Meter Design Congress, San Diego in March 2010

1. Ben Pirt, CTO,
Onzo, London, UK

2. The role of (meter) design
in behavioural change
Ben Pirt :: twitter.com/bjpirt
Onzo :: www.onzo.com :: twitter.com/onzohq

3. People seem to hold smart meters responsible for
solving the planet’s environmental issues!
"Smart meters will put the power
in people's hands, enabling us all to
control how much energy we use,
cut emissions and cut bills,"
Energy and Climate Change Minister, Lord Hunt
Big responsibility
(no pressure!)

4. A story...
In the mid 80’s some engineers thought about
sending messages between phones using the
signalling channels already present.
Developed into an international standard
4.1 trillion SMS messages sent in 2008

5. One engineer thinking about other ways
to use the system
Multi-billion dollar industry
Image: mangee @ flickr - thank you!

6. What is the equivalent of SMS in meter design?
Data
Image: paedrus @ flickr - thank you!

7. What kind of data?
Data that is already being measured
Real Power
Reactive Power
Energy
Voltage
The more frequent the better!
Image: ScareTax @ flickr - thank you!

8. But what does data have to do with behaviour change?

9. Wisdom :: Behaviour change
Knowledge :: Understand usage
Information :: Graphs of usage
Data :: Energy data
Data is the foundation upon which
everything else builds

10. This is why we need more frequent, high quality data
Displays become more responsive
Graphs become more detailed
Analysis becomes more accurate
Understanding becomes better
Behaviour change becomes more effective

11. How does better data change people’s behaviour?

12. It’s not the data itself, it’s what you do with it...
1/2 hourly billing data enables time of
use tariffs which encourage people to
use energy more efficiently
Good first step
Still doesn’t help with understanding
Only coarse data required - slow feedback rate
Image: midcenturydesign @ flickr - thank you!

13. Live data over the HAN enables
real-time displays which give people
more info to help save energy
Begin to understand where the energy is being used
Near-real-time data required
More frequent data = more effective system

14. Advanced data analytics turns information
into knowledge. Helps people to understand
exactly how they are using their energy
Full understanding of where the energy is being used
High resolution data required
More frequent data = more effective system

15. Once people can understand their
energy usage, they will be able to
take control of their behaviour
Smart appliance control
Real-time data required
More frequent data = more effective system
Image: schilling2 @ flickr - thank you!

16. Like SMS - we can’t fully envisage how the system
will be used in the future
Real-time energy trading
Micro-gen
Distributed storage and PHEVs
Image: roddh @ flickr - thank you!

17. If we create more capable systems now, we
will enable more interesting things to
happen in the future