Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting Energy Consumption

Conference paper

Matthias Betz, Tobias Schwartz, Leonardo Ramirez
Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting on Facets of One’s Life at CHI 2010, Atlanta, GA, 2010 Apr 10

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APA Click to copy
Betz, M., Schwartz, T., & Ramirez, L. (2010). Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting Energy Consumption. In Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting on Facets of One’s Life at CHI 2010. Atlanta, GA.

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Betz, Matthias, Tobias Schwartz, and Leonardo Ramirez. “Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting Energy Consumption.” In Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting on Facets of One’s Life at CHI 2010. Atlanta, GA, 2010.

MLA Click to copy
Betz, Matthias, et al. “Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting Energy Consumption.” Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting on Facets of One’s Life at CHI 2010, 2010.

BibTeX Click to copy

@inproceedings{matthias2010a,
  title = {Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting Energy Consumption},
  year = {2010},
  month = apr,
  day = {10},
  address = {Atlanta, GA},
  author = {Betz, Matthias and Schwartz, Tobias and Ramirez, Leonardo},
  booktitle = {Know Thyself: Monitoring and Reflecting on Facets of One’s Life at CHI 2010},
  month_numeric = {4}
}

In the last few years, a growing awareness has emerged on the impact that personal energy consumption have in the global levels of energy waste. Building on this trend, SmartMetering has focused on providing access to energy consumption data with increasing levels of granularity. In this position paper we show the results of a preliminary study of SmartMetering technology in different contexts of use. One repeating pattern observed in our studies was the relevance of the connection between metering data and usage habits. We argue that the efforts of SmartMetering are incomplete if they stop on data visualization without further supporting the change of habits in energy consumption. To illustrate our ideas, we provide a set of design sketches that move the focus from energy consumption displays towards supporting changes in personal and social behavior patterns which are ultimately the source of energy consumption.