Understanding context governing energy consumption in homes

Germaine Irwin, Sami Rollins, Nilanjan Banerjee, Amy Hurst

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The key to designing better home energy management systems is in-depth understanding of the context underlying energy usage. The common method of inferring the underlying context is data collection through extensive sensor deployments and then deriving contextual ties between factors like occupancy and energy consumption. There is, therefore, a lack of studies that use first principle approaches like interviewing households to understand the major factors that influence energy consumption. In this work-in-progress paper, we present preliminary results from an interview-based study on households in low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore City. We show that there are several factors like house insulation, use of old appliances, and specific activities that influence energy consumption. Moreover, we have found that households in these neighborhoods are willing to volunteer their homes as testbeds for collecting contextual data and are primarily incentivized by reduction in their electricity bill.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI EA 2014
Subtitle of host publicationOne of a ChiNd - Extended Abstracts, 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages2443-2448
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9781450324748
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2014 - Toronto, ON, Canada
Duration: Apr 26 2014May 1 2014

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Other

Other32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2014
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityToronto, ON
Period4/26/145/1/14

Keywords

  • Author's kit
  • Conference publications Energy
  • Consumption
  • Context
  • Design
  • Guides
  • HCI
  • Instructions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Understanding context governing energy consumption in homes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this