Abstract
ABSTRACTSmart homes promise to significantly enhance domestic comfort, convenience, security and leisure whilst simultaneously reducing energy use through optimized home energy management. Their ability to achieve these multiple aims rests fundamentally on how they are used by householders, yet very little is currently known about this topic. The few studies that have explored the use of smart homes have tended to focus on special-interest groups and be quite short-term. This paper reports on new in-depth qualitative data that explore the domestication of a range of smart home technologies in 10 households participating in a nine-month field trial. Four core themes emerge: (1) smart home technologies are both technically and socially disruptive; (2) smart homes require forms of adaptation and familiarization from householders that can limit their use; (3) learning to use smart home technologies is a demanding and time-consuming task for which there is currently very little support available; and (4) there is little evidence that smart home technologies will generate substantial energy savings and, indeed, there is a risk that they may generate forms of energy intensification. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for policy, design and further research.
Highlights
Imagine pressing a ‘welcome home’ button on a remote control as you pull into your driveway and having your pathway, front porch and hallway lights turn on
This paper reports the in-depth qualitative findings of a field trial of smart home technologies (SHTs) installed in 10 households over a nine-month period
Whilst different households appeared to find different kinds of work more or less challenging, at various points all three kinds of work threatened to derail the domestication process. This points towards the need for designers and developers to consider actively all three types of work when developing new SHTs, not least because it appears that SHTs, at least those used in this trial, are currently quite difficult to domesticate
Summary
Imagine pressing a ‘welcome home’ button on a remote control as you pull into your driveway and having your pathway, front porch and hallway lights turn on. This was not helped by the small noises made by the RWE radiator when they automatically adjusted themselves, making them a constant and often irritating presence These examples of resistance, feeling out of control or being monitored by the SHTs reveal the significant challenges participants faced in conducting the symbolic work of domestication – that is, constructing the meaning of the technologies and incorporating them into selfand household identities. The cognitive work involved in learning what to use SHTs for was shaped not merely or even mainly by the capabilities of the SHTs, but rather by a much wider range of concerns relating to the effective accomplishment of everyday life Two households in this group were exploring options for acquiring more SHTs. Ingrid, for example, had purchased a fitness tracker that linked with the HIVE system, and David was researching smart lighting controls for their planned home-extension. This points towards the need for designers and developers to consider actively all three types of work when developing new SHTs, not least because it appears that SHTs, at least those used in this trial, are currently quite difficult to domesticate
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