14th September 2016 IAHS 2016, Algarve, Portugal

Sarah Pink, Yolande Strengers, Marta Fernandez, Amalia SabiescuRMIT University, RMIT Europe

Understanding Energy Futures through everyday life observation following an ethnographic approach

Invisible energy

Image: Jim D, Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Ethnography In depth insights into

householder experiences underpinning energy consumption and demand

development and evolution of household routines around appropriation of new technologies

implications for designing for sustainable forms of energy consumption and demand

What is ethnography?

Image: Tuomas Al Lehtinen, Flickr. Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Research by means of “direct and sustained contact with human agents, within the context of

their daily lives (and cultures), watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking

questions and producing a richly written account that respects the irreducibility of human

experience.”

– K O’Reilly, Ethnographic methods

Sensory ethnography

Video, audio and photo tours of homes

Video recorded re-enactments of household routines

In situ observation of everyday household life

Towards digital design interventions to reduce energy demand

UK, 2010-2014

Low Effort Energy Demand Reduction (LEEDR)Cross-disciplinary study of domestic energy consumption: engineering, social sciences, design

Examining technological and social dimensions of everyday household energy consumption

Understanding how digital media can be used for energy demand reduction

Assessing energy reduction measures in the context of family life

Methods

Sensory ethnography for understanding digital

technologies and energy use in the home

1. Home video tours

2. Video re-enactments

3. Video recording everyday activity

www.energyanddigitalliving.com

Home video tour

Understanding how householders create and make their home ‘feel right’

Image: Luis Alberto Martinez, Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Image: Jamelah E., Flickr. Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Video re-enactments

Understanding habits, transitions in daily activities, improvisation

Video recording everyday activity

Understanding energy consumption practices, flows and synchronicities: media use, laundry, cooking, showering, heating, ..

Image: Filippo Baron, Flickr. Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Design inspirations for understanding digital

technologies and energy use in the home

1. Everyday improvisation

2. Flow: making the home ‘feel right’

3. Movement through the home

Design in practice

to inform concepts for low effort energy demand

reduction

1. People, objects and resources through time and space (PORTS)

2. Personas

3. Design concepts

Studying intersections of people, objects and resources through time

and space Rather than isolating instances of ‘bad behaviour’, understanding how energy use is enmeshed in everyday activities

Examining complex meshes of activities and routines across people, objects and resources

Applying ‘freeze frames’ at intersection points to study activities in more detail

Charting laundry activities over time

Peaks in energy use during the day: matching appliance energy use to intersections between energy use and home activities elicited through ethnography

Laundry route: showing movements of people and clothing within the home

Design personas: moving from real world data to wider patterns across households

Design concepts

Kairos: allows to set delayed times & intelligent profiles for appliances and

heating system

Anima: Visualise the heartbeat of

the home, in terms of health and

fitness

Hinterland: making the invisible visible.

AR app that visualises energy consumed as loud

plumes emanating from devices

Automating the smart homeAustralia, 2015-17

ObjectivesUnderstand how automated technologies are incorporated into households and household practices, and how they associate to changes in practices

Examine intersections between use of automated technologies and energy consumption

Analyse matches and mismatches between expectations of policy makers, energy providers and manufacturers and the lived experiences of householders

MethodsContent analysis of international media coverage of smart home and automated technologies

Interviews with Australian industry professionals selling or installing smart home products and services

Ethnographic research with Australian householders living in smart homes

Smart home as

“a residence equipped with computing and information technology which anticipates and

responds to the needs of the occupants, working to promote their comfort, convenience, security and

entertainment through the management of technology within the home and connection to the

world beyond .”

–F K Aldrich, Smart homes: past, present and futures

Ethnographic research

30 homes targeted (10 in progress)

Site visits, household questionnaire, interview, home tour

Follow up by email, phone or visit

Preliminary findings

Smart homes are a gendered project

Smart homes are fields of possibility, integrated in but also transformative for everyday practices

Smart homes demand their own energy

ConclusionMapping and shaping energy futures requires deep knowledge of how people’s energy uses are enmeshed in everyday household practices

Qualitative research is fundamental to attempts to reduce energy consumption and demand & move towards future (more) environmentally sustainable forms of energy consumption

(Sensory) Ethnography

examining energy consumption practices the way they are enmeshed in everyday activities and experiences

mapping development and evolution of new practices integrating digital technologies

informing design of technologies and interventions for encouraging sustainable forms of energy consumption

Enables understanding of relationships between everyday lived experience (present) and what is technologically possible (future)

Sarah Pink sarah.pink@rmit.edu.au Yolande Strengers, yolande.strengers@rmit.edu.au Marta Fernandez, marta fernandz@rmit.edu.au Amalia Sabiescu, amalia.sabiescu@rmit.edu.au

Thank you!