Project Name: Technologies for Sustainable Living

Project Leader

Robert Woodbury

Project Co-Leader

Lyn Bartram

Researchers

• Sid Fels (UBC)
• Robert Woodbury (SFU)
• Lyn Bartram (SFU)
• Ray Cole (UBC)
• Halil Erhan (SFU)
• Saul Greenberg (Calgary)
• Bernhard Riecke (SFU)

Theme Distribution

• Theme 2 : 30%
• Theme 3 : 30%
• Theme 4 : 40%

Project Description

Effective energy reduction programs necessitate not only efficient buildings, but approaches that aid occupants in modifying their energy use behaviour. This project addresses several major issues in the design of information systems for technologically enabled sustainable home design: appropriate interface design for in-home technological ecosystems that support sustainability; exploring the impacts of awareness, understanding, practical action, data logging and community interaction on energy use decisions; and improving design practice, including the tools and methods used by architects, engineers, developers, and policy makers to explore design space from the perspective of occupant behaviour. The research scope includes both new technologies related to green buildings and alternative energy sources as well as information tools for encouraging energy conservation in more traditional residences (Chetty et al, 2008; Wood & Newborough, 2007). Several research questions will form the basis of our investigations. Some are concerned with the technological infrastructure in the house itself: what we term the occupants digital ecosystem. Others focus on incentives, models for motivation and the interplay between personal goal-setting and community interaction that have been shown effective in changing energy conservation habits. We propose to address these problems as one of system design in which a variety of display, control, and tracking tools work in concert with the home occupant, or home user. We posit the following major aspects in the design of better digital ecosystems: awareness, monitoring, sense-making, and control. These activities need to be supported at different levels of detail, varying degrees of attention, and in contextually appropriate ways. The cumulative impact of small beneficial decisions can make a substantial contribution to the current, and urgent, society-wide changes needed. The project aims at an empirically justified basis for design and implementation of usable and effective home systems.Chetty, M., Tran, D., and Grinter, R. E. 2008. Getting to green: understanding resource consumption in the home. In Proceedings of the 10th international Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (Seoul, Korea, September 21 - 24, 2008). UbiComp '08, vol. 344.

Excellence of the Research

Development of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP)

Interdisciplinary Grad students from: Interactive Art and Technology (SIAT), Architecture (UBC), Engineering (UBC), Computer Science (Calgary). Training for grad students not only as researchers/developers of information systems, interfaces and software, but also as as integrators and outreach coordinators with a wide variety of manufacturers, policy makers, service providers and non-profit environmental organisations.

Networking and Partnerships

Interdisciplinary academic research team. NIs on this project from Computer Science, HCI, Architecture, Engineering and Design. Extensive interaction and support from industrial and civic partners, including BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, AutoDesk, Day4 Energy, David Suzuki Foundation and Embedded Automation. Other partners are planned

Knowledge and Technology Exchange and Exploitation

References to the Literature

Wood, G. and Newborough, M. 2007. Energy-use information transfer for intelligent homes: Enabling energy conservation with central and and local displays. Energy and Buildings, 39, 495-503.

Publications

Presentations

• 2 Minute Madness 2010