Research Article
Evaluating Mobile Phones as Energy Consumption Feedback Devices
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-29154-8_6, author={Markus Weiss and Claire-Michelle Loock and Thorsten Staake and Friedemann Mattern and Elgar Fleisch}, title={Evaluating Mobile Phones as Energy Consumption Feedback Devices}, proceedings={Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking, and Services. 7th International ICST Conference, MobiQuitous 2010, Sydeny, Australia, December 6-9, 2010, Revised Selected Papers}, proceedings_a={MOBIQUITOUS}, year={2012}, month={10}, keywords={Advanced metering energy conservation feedback systems behavioral change energy use}, doi={10.1007/978-3-642-29154-8_6} }- Markus Weiss
Claire-Michelle Loock
Thorsten Staake
Friedemann Mattern
Elgar Fleisch
Year: 2012
Evaluating Mobile Phones as Energy Consumption Feedback Devices
MOBIQUITOUS
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-29154-8_6
Abstract
With smart electricity meters being widely deployed, data on residential energy usage is increasingly becoming available. To make sensible use of these data, we investigated the suitability of mobile phones as an interface to provide feedback on overall and device-related energy consumption. Based on the results of a user survey, we implemented the most highly valued feedback features on an iPhone that communicates with a smart meter. In a follow-up user study, we evaluated how users perceive the experience of such energy consumption feedback and how they rate the importance of different functionalities. Our work confirms the suitability of energy feedback delivered on a mobile phone. It outlines that a clear and easy to explain use case scenario is key and that knowledge-increasing functionalities as well as those functionalities from which monetary savings can be directly implied are perceived as most important. To address technophobe users, action-guiding feedback that goes beyond displaying aggregated information is required.
