The Dubuque Electricity Portal:Evaluation of a City-Scale Residential Electricity Con-sumption Feedback System

+ CHI 2013-Thomas Erickson/ 맹욱재x 2013 fall

The Dubuque Electricity Portal:Evaluation of a City-Scale Resi-dential Electricity Consumption Feedback System

2013.10.16Wookjae Maeng

Why this paper?

• ICT policy project• Curious about the way of evaluation

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Dubuque?

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-11/data-transforming-dubuque-and-it-will-transform-your-city-too

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Author

Thomas Ericksoninteraction designer and re-searcherSocial Computing Group at IBM's Watson Labshttp://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=us-snowfall

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Abstract

Dubuque Electricity Portalfor volunteering reductionLog, Survey, interview20weeks pilot, 765 household3.7% reductionUnderstanding of usage↑

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Problem

• Energy consumption is critical global issue

• In developed, developing countries• Side effect : CO2 emission, ecology dam-

age

• Among U.S’s Electricity consumption 37% from home

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Previous Work

Sustainability

EnvironmentalPsychologyHCI

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Previous Work 2

ECF(Electricity Consumption Feedback) techniques

1. Feedback (show how much they use)2. incentive (points, pricing, differential pricing)3. Comparisons (between individuals, group)4. Goal-setting 5. Commitment (elicit public commitment)

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System

• The Sitestrong sustainability agenda citysmart electricity meters are deployed

• The Systemevery 15min transmit data to gatewayData was stored and uploaded in cloudanalyzed, fed back to web portalnot track individual devicebut high, medium, low load device

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Solution

Figure 2 on this paper

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Pilot project

• 765 neighborhood – 20 weeks• First log in – fill in profile for cus-

tomizingsize of household, type of device

• Survey, interview for UX qualitative data

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Survey

• Survey – 32 questions, 10minmultiple choice, Likert scale, open-ended

1. Why?2. How often?

If answer > 1go next question

elsego final question

3. Portal UI – value, degree(cue for picture)4. Effects on understanding and use5. Physical or Behavior Change• Distributed by email when the pilot ended

22% answer (116/561)

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Survey 2

• Privacy requirement – link survey to log data X

• 34% - logged on > 1 (91 survey, 266 log)

• 53% response rate of logged on > 1• 5% never use (25 survey, 490 log)

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Interview

• 18( 1 couple, 4 women, 13 men)• 23 ~ 90 years old• Most single-family, living with spouse• 33% having children• Recruited by city employee

most engaged, active participants• 45 min• 15 city office, 2 participant’s office, 1

restaurant

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Interview 2

• Semi-structured• Informant’s background and household• Same with survey• Discussing their experience with oth-

ers?• How the portal could be improved?

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Result - Survey

• 35% use > 1 from log(= water portal)opt-in energy conservation program < 10%

• Reasonsover 90%1. interest in reducing electricity costs2. belief in the importance of sustainability of city3. Concern about the environment4. Dislike of waste and a preference for being frugal– Curious about the tech : 84%– Concern about climate change : 72%– Good educational experience : 59%91% conserve electricity before : highly motivated

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Result 2 - Survey

• Barriers51% no difficultiesproblem with ID or password : 42%difficulty in finding the site : 12%can’t see their data : 4%

• Complexity of initial password from privacy is-sue( mixed number and upper, lower case)

• Forgetting password : 27%no time : 26%integrating into ordinary life is hardtoo difficult (5%), too complicated(4%)

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Result 3 - Survey

• Degree of uselog in > 5 / week : 12%1 / week : 18%occasional : 31%rare : 25%don’t recall : 14%

• Baseline consumption checkerfrequently at first(30%), regularly(20%)

30%

30%

40%

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Result

Figure 3 on this paper

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Result 4 - Survey

• Time based got good score• Alert, Facebook Chat require menu access• Clear correlation between UI component

and understanding how they use• Comparison by Neighbor, Alerts, Facebook

chat were bad.

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Result 5 - Interview

• Incentivesmany : comparing with themselvesothers : comparing with similar neighborfixed itselfNo points from direction

• Contextaverage temperature, degree of heating/cooling daysvacation or not

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Result – Impact of portal useExceptional Participants266 participant 3.7% reduction

<= Already taken actions Small support

61% at least one change in infra - unplugging(40%)42% plan for change - energy star appliance(28%)69% at least one change in behav-ior - non peak period(51%) - less use of light(33%) - short shower, dishwasher cycle(32%)

table 1 on this paper

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Discussion

• Limitation1. Not random samples – smart electricity meter

particular social economic characteristic- single family, blue or white color jobs, retired

- internet literate2. Volunteers

- highly motivated- already taken many actions to conserve

3. Over-represent of participant from survey, interview

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Discussion 2

• Accessibilitydifficulty with ID and passwordcomplexitycan estimate waking up, sleeping, vaca-tionunfavorable comparison=> biometrics to single sign on

• Engagementcollective attention from campaign

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Discussion

• Manner of usetime-based visualization – historic feedbackmultiple feedback optionschat failure – face to face conversation, not privacy=> larger set will be solved=> linking to local discussion

• Credibilitybig spike – system errorbut refrigerator defrost cycle, dehumidheaterelectricity consumption is invisible=> list of possible explanationalert should be informative

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Contribution

• HCI 에서 sustainability design approach a lotfew field study, identifying gap be-tween real and theory

• thorough evaluation - 20 weeks,765 household, log, survey, 18 interview

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Generalizing to Me

• ECF? -> Electricity Consumption Feed-back!

• HVAC? -> Heating Ventilating Air Condi-tioning

• Environmental Psychology• Good reference for public data visualiza-

tion• Insight from limitation and result• Curious about implementing in Korea

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Sharing

• What is the bad points of this paper?• How do you think about implement-

ing in Korea, further issues?• Any idea about improving chat, in-

teraction with other users?