Behavioral science-informed technology interventions for change in residential energy consumption

Behavior change represents an important new approach to addressing the energy crisis. Utility companies and private companies are deploying sensor-based power meters and related residential electricity monitoring technologies with the view that monitoring energy use will eventually result in a reduction in energy consumption. The success of these technologies depends largely on homeowners responding to the data with appropriate changes in their consumption behavior. Most energy feedback interfaces, however, have not been designed through a human-centered process and display data in ways that are unlikely to change behavior. Our proposal is to design interactive interfaces that combine a deeply human-centered process with insights from behavioral economics to reduce residential energy consumption. This paper describes our current research to develop and evaluate interactive interfaces based on three motivational categories: cognitive, social, and affective.