Workshop presentation to British HCI 'designing smart energy futures' workshop (https://bcshci.org/workshop-summaries/#designing-domestic-smart-energy-futures). Focusing on the relationship between energy and the infrastructures we build (which use energy), and how this shapes social expectations and practices - locking in energy demand. Renewables will introduce new variability and limits to what energy is available, and that changes the game!

1. How design influences home
energy demand
Adrian Friday, Lancaster University

2. Going to use a series of (old)
case studies to provide some
input today!
• Is energy use behaviour or
infrastructure?
• Does timing of demand
matter?
• What’s technology’s role in
shaping future energy
demand?

3. Goal: Understanding the role of design &
technology in changing the wider energy and
environmental impacts of everyday life
Rockström et al. “A safe operating space for humanity”, Nature 461. Ecology and society. 14(2).

4. 1. Behaviour change?
Energy use in the home (scope 1)

5. These are 4 almost identical 8 person flats…
The baseload is not the same ! 300W-1kW!
Accounting for energy-reliant
services within everyday life
at home, Pervasive 2012.

6. The total & repeated is harder to see than the
peaks!
06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Timestamp
Electric
power
(Watts)
Lighting
Refrigeration
Entertainment & IT
Other cooking appliances
Oven
Are these meals where
you ‘expect them’ to
be? Social
expectation… a kitchen,
meal, entertaining…
Meals: what’s cooked and how What appliances
Knowledge and
competence

7. The repeated
use of
infrastructures
we create

8. 2. Does time of use matter?
Unsplash/ appolinary-kalashnikova-WYGhTLym344

9. When matters
(scope 2,
marginal
demand =
carbon
intensive)
As the renewables/ demand varies
Also peaks are partly ‘congestion’ due to social structures
So this is balanced by fossil fuels (mainly)
Major challenge over here!

10. OnSupply: Can we adapt to availability?
Tiree Energy Pulse
Datarium
Energy Detector
Prize Winning Sheep
Tiree energy pulse: exploring
renewable energy forecasts on
the edge of the grid. CHI 2015.

11. TEP Features and Feedback
‘I like Blinky…it’s
cute!”
LOCATED DISPLAY
“An interactive way of seeing
the energy and the weather,
and the relationship between
the two”
“so you get….THE FEEL of
the wind vs how much
energy it produces”
PERSONIFICATION
REAL-TIME & 4-DAY FORECAST

12. 3. The extended energy footprint of
the home

13. Domestic Food and Sustainable
Design: A Study of University
Student Cooking and its
Impacts, CHI 2013.
Food, cooking and its energy

14. Scope 3: Embodied v direct emissions
Indirect (78%) significantly
outweighed direct (22%)!

15. “typical student
food”
“all those kind of
really easy things”
Repeated moderate- to high-impact foods
A convenient, affordable diet

16. 4. The future?

17. What about heating? Gas vs.
electricity, we need to
decarbonise!
Figure courtesy: https://ukerc.ac.uk/news/gas-consumption-during-beast-from-the-east/

18. Sustainable Products and Packaging 18
How to cook/
clean/ heat/
entertain
What we
expect,
how we
should X…
(has
changed/
needs to
change!)
Governance,
available products
& services
Materials have
embodied
energy and
resource use
RMIT University © 2011 Strengers, Y. Smart energy in everyday life: Are you designing for resource man? interactions 21, 4 (July 2014), 24–31.
They change the
infrastructure
and ‘lock in’
demand through
systems of
practice
What’s tech’s role?
Common
Understandings
Rules
Practical
knowledge
Material
infrastructure
Social practice theory

19. Things to think about
• Technology changes the home and the energy footprint of
the home
• Infrastructure and societal structures shape energy demand
• What is a home for 2050 and what should it be?
• Is it time to think beyond a home to community scale?
• Most 2050 built infrastructure exists, retrofit is critical…
that change needs to be affordable, fast and inclusive
• Any technology we design needs to make a net gain
We gratefully acknowledge the support of EPSRC, grant refs: EP/I00033X/1 and EP/T025964/1.

20. Socio-Digital Sustainability Team
Kathy New
PhD Student
Dr Kelly Widdicks
Lecturer
Adam Tyler
PhD Student
Dr Oliver Bates
Senior Researcher
Dr Ally Gormally
Lecturer
Prof Adrian Friday
Professor
Dr Janine Morley
Researcher
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/scc-sds/
Matt Marsden
PhD Student
Christina Bremer
PhD Student
Iman Hussain
PhD Student
Dr Christian Remy
Senior Researcher
Dr Carolynne Lord
Senior Researcher