The Design of Energy Efficient Everyday Practices
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REVISED VERSION 2015-06-18 The design of energy efficient everyday practices Wiktoria Glad Linköping University Department of Thematic Studies SE-581 83 Linköping Sweden [email protected] Keywords everyday life, practices, design, socio-technical, user perspec- energy-efficiency objectives. This confuses users and makes tive, communication it difficult for household members to take the “right” actions in everyday life. Recommendations to housing companies are Abstract to focus on both product and organizational designs to better target energy efficiency goals. Activity-centred design has been proposed as a way to en- courage energy-efficient practices. This approach suggests that “good” designs can improve communication between the Introduction sender and receiver of a message, for example, “save energy”. Design has been promoted as an effective tool for reaching The approach also concerns recent advances in research into energy-efficiency goals (EU Directive, 2005, 2009). Legislation how objects can be inscribed to steer users in certain direc- such as the Eco Design Directive has focused on appliances and tions. The approach has been expanded to include not only products. The current research has users’ perspectives on de- the use of individual things but the practices of everyday life. sign and the starting point is rather the activities of people than This paper examines design issues related to everyday prac- appliances and products. Norman (2013) introduced activity- tices and reports on findings in three household domains cru- centred designs as a perspective to focus on high-level struc- cial to efforts to influence household behaviour to promote tures such as “care of clothes” rather than “using the washing energy-efficient everyday lives: a bright and comfortable home machine”. Norman proposes a user perspective on design that (lighting, heating, and cooling), food and entertainment (stor- requires knowledge of the user and communication skills on ing food, cooking, Internet, and TV), and personal appear- the part of the designer. This knowledge should be based on a ance (clothes washing and self-care). The findings are based deep understanding of how activities and tasks are performed, on qualitative data from Swedish research in which three or fail to be performed in everyday life situations. Shove et al. household domains were explored by visiting 32 homes and (2007) also focus on high-level structures but suggest a broader conducting 32 in-depth interviews. To complement the user perspective from things to encompass practices and the com- perspective, observations and informal interviews with staff plexity of people’s sayings and doings, includes things but treats members of a public housing company were also included. them in context. In turn, the focus on practices has inspired Results indicate that conscious designs were seldom used to many researchers in the field of energy use and households. influence user practices; instead, general written information Among them are Stephenson et al. (2010), who propose an and regulations were more common tools for addressing us- energy culture framework for studying energy efficiency -re ers. Written information is not an efficient tool, and regula- lated to homes. The energy culture framework was used in the tions are not perceived positively by households, which try present research to guide the methodology and data analyses. to by-pass them. Current designs, instead of communicating Energy-efficient practices in this case has been defined as the energy efficiency, convey random messages unaligned with “doings and sayings” in line with energy-efficiency goal of the ECEEE SUMMER STUDY PROCEEDINGS 1611 7-338-15 GLAD 7. APPLIANCES, PRODUCT POLICY & THE ICT SUPPLY CHAIN property owner. This goal is set to 25 per cent savings between the initial number of respondents agreeing to interviews was the years 2011 and 2025. insufficient, additional tenants received a letter by mail con- Another approach that inspired this research is the general taining information about the research project and stating that idea of everyday life. Everyday life has been suggested as a start- they could expect phone calls about interest in participating ing point for research into how and why household energy effi- in the study. The interviews started during the Swedish winter ciency is implemented or not (Ellegård, 1999; Ellegård & Palm, and were continued until they yielded little new information. 2011). Learning about how people organize their everyday lives, In total, 32 in-depth interviews were performed face-to-face what activities they are involved in, and what technologies they in tenants’ homes. This approach allowed a thick description use to perform various activities and projects can foster insight of the phenomenon, i.e., energy-related tenant activities and into energy-efficiency opportunities and challenges. Research practices. Interviewee selection attempted to recruit a variety into and analyses of everyday life improve our understanding of household members in terms of size, age, gender, and back- of the important micro level of energy efficiency. Connected to ground. Eighteen interviewees were women and 14 men. In everyday life is the growing body of literature applying practice some cases, respondents were interviewed as a couple. theory (Shove, 2003; Shove et al., 2005; Røpke, 2009). The eve- Before the interviews started, several test interviews were per- ryday life approach and practice theory have previously been formed; these interviews were semi-structured and the interview applied in energy use research in Sweden (Karresand, 2013). guide was assessed and somewhat revised after the test round. The background to this research is interest in energy-use The structure of the interview questions was shaped by the vari- activities and practices in residential buildings owned by mu- ous household domains we decided to explore. To explore these nicipal housing companies. Compared with other European domains properly, the interviewer asked the tenants to show countries, in Sweden rental housing is common, constitut- him/her around the flat, so all domains were asked about in the ing 37 percent of all housing. In the rental sector, municipally associated spaces; for example, questions about food storage, owned housing companies have a 45 percent market share, food preparation, and dish washing were asked in the kitchen. making studies of energy use in this sector important. The interviews lasted normally 30–60 minutes. To complement This paper presents the results of research into tenants’ eve- the user perspective, observations and informal interviews with ryday activities and practices in rented flats. More specifically, staff members of the property owner were also conducted. The the presentation considers whether spaces and products are observations included two weeks of observations of customer designed and configured to facilitate more energy-efficient service, one week in summer and one week in winter. activities and practices. The research questions guiding the All formal interviews with tenants were recorded on a digi- data collection and analyses are: How do tenants use spaces tal recorder and transcribed verbatim (cf. Fejes & Thornberg, and products around their homes when they perform every- 2015), a 60-minute interview resulting in around 500 text lines. day activities and practices? Do these spaces and products fa- After transcription, all interviews were coded in NVivo. The cilitate or hinder energy-efficient tenant behaviour? The next codes were structured according to seven themes: heating, section presents the methodology, data collection, and analyti- lighting, laundry, bathroom, consumer electronics, cooking, cal method. The sections after that present findings organized and energy costs. Each theme had subthemes focusing on so- according to the various domains of activities and practices: a cio-material aspects of the responses, aspects emanating from bright and comfortable home (lighting, heating, and cooling), a theoretical perspective on material cultures, energy practices, food and entertainment (storing food, cooking, Internet, and and cognitive norms (Stephenson et al., 2014). Although the TV), and personal appearance (clothes washing and self-care). general approach used here stressed the complexity of every- The last section presents recommendations and conclusions of day life and the tight intertwining of the social and material this research. in tenants’ everyday activities and practices, the activity and practice aspects were distinguished for analytical reasons. Un- der the six subthemes was a level of sub-subthemes. For ex- Methods and data ample, under the heating theme, material culture subtheme, The presented research was a case study of tenants and flats were another six sub-subthemes as follows: radiators, external in a medium-sized town in Sweden (cf. Bryman, 2012). The heating sources, building envelope, built-in ventilation, supple- flats are owned by a housing company that is wholly owned mentary ventilation/air conditioning, and thermometers. The by the municipality. The case study methodology allowed a fo- coding of a 60-minute interview typically resulted in 150 codes cus on similar conditions in terms of plans, white goods, and and 470 references. The interviews were then analysed as texts heating. The flats have been subject to the same refurbishment about the three household domains, and the responses were and renovation