Abstract
Most individuals do not have an accurate understanding of the words energy or power, making it very difficult for them to engage in environmentally friendly behaviors. The human factors/ergonomics community can play a significant role in solving the problem of climate change by helping to design energy feedback systems that enable people to be active participants in the management of energy consumption (e.g., Moray, 1993; Sellers & Fiore, 2013).
In this issue’s Research Digest, principles that govern the design of sustainable systems are discussed (Taylor-Brown & Hannon, 2012; Trinh & Jamieson, 2014).
An energy feedback system should take into account users’ motivations (e.g., reduce cost, protect the environment, maximize comfort) and attitudes and should be well integrated into their lives.
Link energy conservation, which is an abstract concept, to more tangible concepts that users relate with and comprehend. For example, use cost, CO2, and trees rather than kWh and kW in an energy feedback user interface.
Quantify energy consumption as much as possible. Cost is an effective way of quantifying consumption in a manner that most users understand.
Display overall energy consumption and usage per appliance to help users exhibit environmentally friendly behaviors.
Provide energy-saving tips that are directly mapped to user behaviors. For example, if the highest cost incurred by users concerns lighting, energy-saving tips that help minimize lighting costs should be displayed in the interface.
Employ text-only feedback, compared with graphical interfaces, as this has a higher potential to reduce the perception of sacrifices in comfort.
Do not use percentage feedback to represent small changes in temperature settings (e.g., 2% savings per degree change), because this lets users conclude that the net cost savings is not worth the sacrifice in comfort.
Show long-term impact versus short-term impact on cost (e.g., savings of $100 per year versus $2 per week).
Empower users by providing the capability to set measurable, achievable, and challenging energy conservation goals.
Allow users to make historic comparisons (i.e., enable comparison of the current billing period with a previous billing period).
Frame conservation messages in a manner in which a potential loss is highlighted. This should be accompanied by tangible actions that users should take to reduce loss in the future.
Provide specific and actionable prompts (e.g., via smartphones) to remind users about something they may have forgotten.
Aggregate data across meaningful intervals of time.
Allow users to view projected energy consumption to motivate them, and reduce the effects of visceral influences.
Make the activity enjoyable (e.g., use games and provide in-game rewards for exhibiting energy-efficient behavior).
In addition to employing good design principles, educating users on how the environmental benefits of green buildings outweigh the costs to their personal comfort is also very important. This way, users are willing to overlook their slight discomfort to support sustainability, and this, in turn, has an impact on user satisfaction and productivity (Phillips, Sellers, & Fiore, 2010).