Presentation to BC Hydro (public utility) by Johnny Rodgers and Dr. Lyn Bartram.

1. Supporting Sustainable
Living in the Home
January 8th, 2010
Johnny Rodgers
Dr. Lyn Bartram
Dr. Rob Woodbury
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

2. Introduction
• Master of Science student at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts &
Technology
• My research aims to make the consumption of residential resources
evident to individuals through information visualization in order to
support informed decision-making.
• Approaches
• Information Visualization
• Interaction Design
• Distributed/Ubiquitous Computing
• Informative Art
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

3. First Big Project
• North House
Net-zero solar-powered home that placed 4th overall
in the Solar Decathlon 2009 in Washington D.C.
• ALIS: Adaptive Living Interface System
Integrated control and feedback system
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

4. Publications
• Bartram, L., and Velikov, K. North House: Developing Intelligent Building Technology and User
Interfaces in Energy Independent Domestic Environments. In Proc. of PLEA2009 - 26th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Quebec City, Canada, 22-24 June 2009.
• Bartram, L., Rodgers, J., and Muise, K. Chasing the Negawatt: Visualization for Sustainable
Living. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, Spring 2010.
• Rodgers, J., Bartram, L., and Muise, K. ALIS: Designing an interactive ecosystem for sustainable
living. Submitted to CHI 2010 Work-In-Progress.
Other Papers
• Rodgers, J. Motivating residential energy conservation: A literature review of psychological
and technological factors and techniques. Supervised by Dr. Ellen Balka.
• Rodgers, J. Information visualization for grid-tied net-zero energy status awareness.
Supervised by Dr. Lyn Bartram.
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

5. What’s out there?
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

6. Analytical Monitoring
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

7. Distributed Feedback
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

8. Feedback at point of consumption
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

9. Informative Art
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

10. What does the research tell us?
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

11. Literature Review
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

12. Decision Science
• cognitive biases hinder conservation efforts
• difficult to make choices that require short and medium term sacrifices for long term benefits
• difficulty reacting to risks that are distant in time and space
• “single-action bias” leads to small actions that salve our guilt and limit broader behavioural
change (“never underestimate the human capacity for rationalization”)
• collective discussion leads to better choices for the environment
• elevation of social good over individual benefit
• ordering of choices matters: show benefits before costs
• need to frame messages in order to resonate with particular audiences
• Christian responsibility to “tend and till the garden”
• framing carbon fees as “offsets” rather than “taxes”
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

13. Behavioural Psychology
• antecedent measures (availability of and access to information) not enough
by itself to encourage conservation
• consequences (feedback, carrots + sticks)
• feedback is a good starting point, but again not enough by itself
• disincentives (price increases) work better than incentives (rewards for top savers) in long term
• intrinsic incentives (pleasure of saving) work better than extrinsic incentives (prizes), as
conservation efforts diminish once extrinsic incentives are removed
• social influences (commitments, group efforts, models)
• relationship to decision science and social norms
• combinations of interventions are critical to success in conservation efforts
• feedback + public commitment
• rewards + group challenges
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

14. Research Findings
• Combine different motivational techniques in order to amplify the effects
of each (such as informational feedback, rewards, and social influences)
• Address multiple perspectives on energy conservation by catering to
various motivations and mental models
• Provide multiple methods of access to the same information
• Support in-the-moment, situated decision-making as well as long-term
planning (support both tactics and strategy)
• Define baselines of energy consumption appropriate to individual
circumstances
• Account for the time scale during which a given intervention will need to
remain relevant
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

15. Key Principles
• Need to move from a model of expert management to one of
aware occupancy
• 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”
• Displays on the wall are going to help residents answer some
questions, but not all of them
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

16. Key Insights
• Interventions need to span several dimensions of time, space,
context, attention, and specificity (more on this later)
• Emphasizing community interaction through social
networking encourages energy conservation
• challenges, tips, carpooling information, comparative data
• “Ambient” information can help to create awareness and
inform in-the-moment decisions
• in contrast to the information made available by explicit, task-based tools
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

17. Need for a cohesive approach
• Hesitancy of residents to adopt more work, more information
• More information alone does not solve the problem
• we can’t expect people to check their laptop every time they have a question
• An interactive ecosystem of elements appears to be a promising
approach to increasing awareness in the home
• Numerous issues to be resolved concerning aesthetics, ergonomics,
visibility, appropriate attentional requirements
• Important to clarify control and energy systems that may be unfamiliar to
homeowners through thoughtful design
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

18. Ongoing Research
• Map the dimensions of resource consumption feedback techniques
• Apply the motivational factors for resource conservation to the design of
feedback systems
• Determine guidelines for establishing meaningful resource use baselines
for different individuals and different contexts
• Explore the appropriate uses of read-only and interactive feedback
mechanisms
• Explore the design and implementation of information/visualization
ecosystems to support sustainable decision-making
• How do we know this works? The challenges of field-testing
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

19. Current Project
• West House Living Lab
An energy efficient small footprint laneway
home incorporating solar energy production
and interactive control and feedback systems
(ALIS v2). Currently under construction and
active development.
• Ambient Canvas (version 2)
An informative art display for incorporation
into West House to provide light-based
feedback on various measures of
sustainability. Currently in the design and
prototyping phase.
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

20. Partners, Players & Stakeholders
• Simon Fraser University
• City of Vancouver
• BC Hydro / PowerSmart
• Smallworks • Ray Cole, UBC
• VerTech Solutions • BCIT Green Building Trades
• Embedded Automation • David Suzuki Foundation
• Xantrex
• Day4 Energy • GRAND Network of Centres of
• MSR Innovations Excellence
• Terasen Gas • MITACS
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living

21. Contact
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living
http://hcssl.iat.sfu.ca
Johnny Rodgers
jgr3@sfu.ca
http://johnny.hcssl.iat.sfu.ca
Lyn Bartram
lyn@sfu.ca
Rob Woodbury
rw@sfu.ca
Human Centered Systems for Sustainable Living