Post on 24-Jan-2021
Another Survey? Not Really. Gathering Energy Use Information Through
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Daniel Perry, University of Washington Marco Pritoni, UC Davis
Alan Meier, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Cecilia Aragon, University of Washington
Therese Peffer, CIEE
+ Thermostats control 9% total US energy use + A setback of 5 - 8º for 8 hours should save 5 – 15% per year + Studies suggest that usability challenges with programmable thermostats can actually cause increased energy usage [Sachs, 2004; Bouchelle, Parker, Anello, 2000]
POTENTIAL ENERGY SAVINGS
POTENTIAL ENERGY SAVINGS
Previous self-reported data on thermostat usage: + often included inaccuracies + expensive + infrequently collected
WHY AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK?
WHY AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK?
Mechanical Turk: + inexpensive + 400,000+ users + collect multimedia
IT WORKS!
We discovered: + 39% of programmable thermostat (PT) owners did not use program settings + 33% PT owners had program settings overridden + 70% did not know where the manual was
METHODOLOGY
METHODOLOGY
+ Quality control: No ceiling thermostats!
RESULTS
+ 192 respondents (data used) + 38 states + 42% reported PTs
RESULTS
+ Settings, what settings?
RESULTS
+ Pictures tell a different story
RESULTS
+ Pervasive energy myths
RESULTS
+ Suggested Improvements
RESULTS
“I want it to add wood to my fireplace. I never actually use the thermostat, instead, I use a wood stove when I’m cold. It’s much cheaper and more environmentally friendly.”
Photo from www.flickr.com/photos/detroitkat
FUTURE WORK USING MECH TURK
+ conduct surveys with a wider population and specified demographics + further utilize 15% of respondents that performed off-line task to gather data on additional behaviors
WELCOME …
Photo from /www.flickr.com/photos/orinrobertjohn
Contact information:
Daniel Perry dbperry@uw.edu Marco Pritoni marco.pritoni@gmail.com
Therese Peffer therese.peffer@uc-ciee.org Alan Meier akmeier@lbl.gov Cecilia Aragon aragon@uw.edu
web: http://depts.washington.edu/sccl/energy
Thank you!