Abstract
Rising energy demands place pressure on domestic energy consumption, but savings can be delivered through home automation and engaging users with their heating and energy behaviours. The aim of this paper is to explore user experiences (UX) of living with an automated heating system regarding experiences of control, understanding of the system, emerging thermal behaviours, and interactions with the system as this area is not sufficiently researched in the existing homes setting through extended deployment. We present a longitudinal deployment of a quasi-autonomous spatiotemporal home heating system in three homes. Users were provided with a smartphone control application linked to a self-learning heating algorithm. Rich qualitative and quantitative data presented here enabled a holistic exploration of UX. The paper's contribution focuses on highlighting key aspects of UX living with an automated heating systems including (i) adoption of the control interface into the social context, (ii) how users' vigilance in maintaining preferred conditions prevailed as a better indicator of system over-ride than gross deviation from thermal comfort, (iii) limited but motivated proactivity in system-initiated communications as best strategy for soliciting user feedback when inference fails, and (iv) two main motivations for interacting with the interface – managing irregularities when absent from the house and maintaining immediate comfort, latter compromising of a checking behaviour that can transit to a system state alteration behaviour depending on mismatches. We conclude by highlighting the complex socio-technical context in which thermal decisions are made in a situated action manner, and by calling for a more holistic, UX-focused approach in the design of automated home systems involving user experiences.
Highlights
Mankind is currently facing one of its greatest ever challenges in climate change, which is primarily caused by human activity resulting in large quantities of pollutants emitted to the atmosphere
In this paper we have demonstrated the ability to achieve a fine degree of spatiotemporal heating control in the domestic setting and the socio-thermo-technical complexity of the setting by deploying a quasi-autonomous heating system
We have highlighted how the interactions with the interface naturally exist in the background fabric of life and the control interfaces' user experiences (UX) needs to be built to be invisible and fit within the user's existing behaviour in order to best nudge them and maximise efficient energy use
Summary
Mankind is currently facing one of its greatest ever challenges in climate change, which is primarily caused by human activity resulting in large quantities of pollutants emitted to the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has suggested that in order to maintain global warming below 2 C over 21st century, a reduction of 40e70% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 and reduction to near or below zero emission levels by 2100 are required (Pachauri et al, 2014). This poses great challenge as global population relies heavily on fossil fuels in satisfying energy demands and these fuels contribute significantly (74%) to global CO2 emissions (Sims et al, 2007). This highlights the complexity of tackling domestic energy usage, with building fabric, heating delivery systems and user interfaces (UI) (in this research used to denote any tangible or graphical computer mechanism for users to control the heating system) all playing a role in satisfying users’ comfort requirements
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