Non-energy feedback: The unseen impacts of sensory, social, material and systemic feedback on household energy demand

Abstract

Energy feedback is a central plank in demand management interventions aiming to reduce the quantity or shift the timing of domestic energy use – changes to patterns of consumption widely seen as necessary in energy systems powered by intermittent renewable generation. Despite significant resources and attention, however, the changes in consumption achieved to date through energy feedback have been relatively limited in both extent and duration. At the same time, the energy sector has largely overlooked the role of broader forms of everyday feedback that observably shape when and how energy-using practices are performed. Drawing on ethnographic research with 30 Australian households, this article argues that in order for the sector to both understand and better guide patterns of domestic energy use we need to decentre energy feedback, and instead refocus attention on the non-energy data that informs everyday practices. We bring this empirical material together with social science literature on energy policy, feedback and consumption to propose the concept of non-energy feedback. Specifically, we explore how sensory, social, material and systemic forms of feedback inform the way that people use and think about energy, and consider how conventional and non-energy forms of feedback are used in combination in the course of everyday life. We conclude by exploring both novel and potential feedback concepts that engage households on the basis of their existing interests and capacities, and consider how non-energy feedback can help to address the challenges posed by a decarbonising and decentralising grid in which demand-side participation is increasingly vital.