Abstract
Smart heating systems that leverage complex models of user preferences and energy consumption within the home and the wider network in order to make intelligent heating decisions have started to be adopted in homes. While heating systems that allow the user to directly manipulate the heating schedule and temperature have been investigated in some detail, little is known about how to strike a balance between encouraging users to interact with the system but not to demand too much of their attention, what research has termed “constrained engagement” with calm technology. In this exploratory study, we investigated how participants responded to a number of scenarios involving a novel smart heating system in order to support controllability, intelligibility and user experience as part of a constrained engagement approach. We focused in particular on when participants wanted to engage with the smart heating system and how explanations from the system could influence user engagement. Our study contributes a better understanding of users' expectations towards smart heating systems that can form the basis of improved user interfaces.
Highlights
Smart heating systems, such as Nest, Ecobee and Lyric, offer to improve energy efficiency and maintain comfortable temperatures and have become increasingly popular in recent years, often working in conjunction with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions such as IFTTT, HomeKit and SmartThings to automate and connect different devices in the home
The heating can be controlled by the user in various ways: simple on/off boiler controls, thermostats that monitor the room temperature, thermostatic radiators valves (TRVs) on radiators, programmable thermostatic controls that can operate a heating schedule through to controls that can be accessed remotely through the Internet
Our results indicate that users might take unexpected behaviour by the smart heating system that significantly impacts their comfort as a point that might prompt further interactions
Summary
Smart heating systems, such as Nest, Ecobee and Lyric, offer to improve energy efficiency and maintain comfortable temperatures and have become increasingly popular in recent years, often working in conjunction with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions such as IFTTT, HomeKit and SmartThings to automate and connect different devices in the home. Heating systems that previously required users to manually set their schedule to switch the heating on and off to meet target temperatures are being replaced by smart systems that take actions on the user's behalf to deliver comfort and reduce costs based on user preferences, house occupancy, environment characteristics, etc. These smart heating systems differ substantially from typical domestic central heating systems (Figure 1) that users are familiar with: usually, traditional systems are built around a source, such as a boiler, which generates heat that is distributed in some way to heat emitters, such as radiators.
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