Designing eco-feedback systems for everyday life
Eco-feedback systems currently frame householders as micro-resource managers, who weigh up the costs and benefits of their consumption, and make autonomous, rational and efficient decisions. Reporting on findings from a qualitative study of three Australian energy and water eco-feedback programs utilising an in-home display (IHD) system, this paper challenges this view. The research finds that householders consume energy and water to carry out everyday practices, such as showering, laundering and cooling, which are mediated by social, cultural, technical and institutional dynamics. The paper proposes an alternative design paradigm for eco-feedback systems premised on the realities of everyday life and identifies several design directions that emerge from this new starting point.
This paper describesthe basicmethodologyused by San DiegoGas & ElectricCompanyto determinethe contribution to system reliability made by various resource alternatives.In particular, thismethodhas beenusedto evaluatetheextentto whichloadmanagement in the form of air conditionercyclingcan be depended on to reducesystemload. Theseresultswere includedin an economic analysisthatdeterminedthat continuedsupportof SDG&E'sresidentialair conditioner cyclingprogram (PEAKSHIFT)was not cost effective.