Design Visions for Future Energy Systems: Towards Aligning Developers' Assumptions and Householders' Expectations

TY - GEN

T1 - Design Visions for Future Energy Systems

T2 - 12th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Participative Computing for Sustainable Futures, NordiCHI 2022

AU - Jensen, Rikke Hagensby

AU - Raptis, Dimitrios

AU - Siksnys, Laurynas

AU - Pedersen, Torben

AU - Skov, Mikael B.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 ACM.

PY - 2022/10/8

Y1 - 2022/10/8

N2 - We increasingly see smart energy technology moving into peoples' homes, designed to support householders in strategically managing different forms of energy conservation. Often, design visions for such technologies assume householders will accept smart energy systems as long as the interaction remains effortless, efficient, and convenient. Likewise, developers rely on assumptions that smart energy technologies meeting such usability goals may urge householders to become active players in a future energy market. Yet, a growing body of HCI research illustrates that actively engaging people with sustainability issues through technology requires more than merely meeting usability goals. Against this backdrop, our study investigates the design vision of a cutting-edge home energy management system created as part of an EU project and householders' expectations of it. Our findings highlight (mis)alignments that emerged from a questionnaire study with 167 households participating in a field trial of the developed technology. We use the insights to discuss the alignment of sustainable visions, HCI, and the design of future energy systems.

AB - We increasingly see smart energy technology moving into peoples' homes, designed to support householders in strategically managing different forms of energy conservation. Often, design visions for such technologies assume householders will accept smart energy systems as long as the interaction remains effortless, efficient, and convenient. Likewise, developers rely on assumptions that smart energy technologies meeting such usability goals may urge householders to become active players in a future energy market. Yet, a growing body of HCI research illustrates that actively engaging people with sustainability issues through technology requires more than merely meeting usability goals. Against this backdrop, our study investigates the design vision of a cutting-edge home energy management system created as part of an EU project and householders' expectations of it. Our findings highlight (mis)alignments that emerged from a questionnaire study with 167 households participating in a field trial of the developed technology. We use the insights to discuss the alignment of sustainable visions, HCI, and the design of future energy systems.

KW - domestic

KW - energy flexibility

KW - HEMS

KW - human-centred energy

KW - local energy systems

KW - smart energy technology

KW - Sustainability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140900107&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3546155.3546655

DO - 10.1145/3546155.3546655

M3 - Article in proceedings

AN - SCOPUS:85140900107

BT - Participative Computing for Sustainable Futures - Proceedings of the 12th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, NordiCHI 2022

PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.

Y2 - 8 October 2022 through 12 October 2022

ER -