Understanding and Supporting Emerging Domestic Energy Practices

The current transformation of the domestic energy landscape, including local generation, new consumption and storage, requires rethinking our research approach. This paper reports experiences from two case studies with their implications for future HCI research in the home. Introduction The home energy environment, as part of the smart grid implementation, is starting a deep mutation: (i) householders have started generating their own electricity, (ii) new high electrical demand appliances have appeared such as heat pumps and electric vehicles, significantly increasing consumption, and (iii) domestic electricity storage is now commercially available. These transformations will result in both the challenge of increasing the complexity and the opportunity of closing the gap between producer and consumer – thus making energy more tangible for householders. The increasing evidence of emerging energy behaviors in a domestic context requires us to rethink both how we investigate energy in the home and our approach to contributions to address climate change. In this paper we report on our experience in studying emerging domestic energy practices. We briefly review existing HCI research in home relating to energy. Then, we present two case studies – that of doing laundry and driving an electric vehicle – in the context of domestic solar electricity generation. Finally, we discuss the implications for the domestic energy and HCI research. Jacky Bourgeois