• Energy Research

Electric vehicle seems to go well together with the growing societal trend of becoming more self-supplying with renewable electricity produced in the household. However, aligning household electricity production and electric vehicle charging have received little attention in HCI although both areas have been pursued separately for a number of years. In this paper, we present findings from a qualitative study that explore the potential of aligning electric vehicle charging with times where renewable electricity is being produced in the household. We present an empirical qualitative study of 5 households (19 persons) that own electric vehicles and also produce their own renewable electricity. Our findings, described in five themes, reveal that aligning charging and electricity production can be a challenge and tension exist for aligning consumption such as motivation, roles, mobility patterns, and electricity producing technology. We further discuss our findings and possible directions for future HCI research in the field.

Designing interactive technology to support and reduce domestic energy consumption has occupied HCI researchers for decades. This paper extends this body of HCI research by using postphenomenology as an analytical lens to understand how the digital energy assistant' Watts' mediates domestic district heating. We base our inquiry on empirical insights from a two-year study. We conducted informal meetings, focus groups with seven households before Watts' distribution, two rounds of semi-structured interviews with seven household representatives using Watts, and 304 questionnaire respondents. We illustrate findings in three postphenomenological dimensions - practical, ontological, and epistemological - showing a two-sidedness of technology-mediated domestic district heating. For instance, Watts enables some to reduce heating by magnifying certain new aspects of consumption, but also constrains others from doing the same by concealing the "raw" consumption data. Finally, we discuss four tensions of Watts mediation and how postphenomenology can complement HCI studies on domestic energy consumption.

Studies show that people find meanings such as freedom and independence in driving. However, the transition towards electric vehicles (EV's) challenges these meanings as they present different driving experiences such as shorter driving range and missing supportive infrastructures. This suggests that people find other meaning in EV driving. This paper presents a qualitative study with 11 Danish participants who reflect on their experiences of driving EV's in everyday life. As driving is embedded in many practices along with being a practice in itself, we draw on social practice theory as a framework to unfold how participants make use of technology to make EV driving a meaningful and desirable practice. We report on how participants facilitate their driving practices using interactive technology and charging infrastructure. We discuss these findings under three headings with ideas to inspire future HCI research and design for meaningful, sustainable EV driving practice.

In the transition towards 4th generation district heating (4GDH), supply and demand side measures have to be coordinated better than in previous generations of district heating (DH). Building’s heat demand has to be reduced, and heating installations as well as consumer behaviour have to be adapted so as to be compatible with and support lower network temperatures. It is therefore necessary to investigate and understand how consumers can be meaningfully and strategically included in the transition towards 4GDH. This paper provides a literature review of the consumer levels role in 4GDH in the transition towards 100% renewable energy systems. Current literature of 4GDH have been investigated to identify the connection and involvement of consumers in the transition. Even though consumers within the existing building mass have a large role in the transition in terms of heat savings and instalment of energy efficient technologies in the buildings are almost none of the scientific literature addressing how these actions should be implemented at consumer level. From the results of the analysis it is recommended that further research should investigate how to strengthen the coordination between supply and demand sides in order to secure the right initiatives are implemented in the right order. International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, Vol. 29 (2020)

Driving an electric car relies on physical, digital, and human infrastructure. However, the charging infrastructure along with breakdowns and the work that people do to recover, that is, infrastructuring, remain understudied in HCI. In this paper, we present a study of 19 Danish electric car drivers and their infrastructuring to recover from breakdowns they encounter in charging their car in public. We describe the three most reoccurring types of infrastructuring with inherent breakdowns making charging infrastructure visible to the electric car driver: (1) Adjusting to conventions of parking, (2) Navigating the standards of charging services, and (3) Learning through community participation. Drawing upon the extant research, we discuss how our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the use of charging infrastructure and its implications for future research and design.

The design of interactive technology meant to change people’s behavior to save energy in the home has occupied HCI researchers in the last decades. In this paper, we extend current HCI literature by investigating one-time actions for long-term energy reduction. We report from an empirical study using district heating as a case. District heating is a way of heating houses where hot water is distributed through a network of pipes from energy supplier to individual buildings. We report from interviews with energy suppliers and households interested in reducing their energy consumption and ask why and how people take one-time actions towards reducing their heat consumption. We present our findings in three themes of; energy literacy as enabler of heat reductions, motivation for heat reductions, and technology supporting heat reduction. We further discuss our findings as to how one-time actions for long-term energy reduction can be supported through interactive technology. The design of interactive technology meant to change people's behavior to save energy in the home has occupied HCI researchers in the last decades. In this paper, we extend current HCI literature by investigating one-time actions for long-term energy reduction. We report from an empirical study using district heating as a case. District heating is a way of heating houses where hot water is distributed through a network of pipes from energy supplier to individual buildings. We report from interviews with energy suppliers and households interested in reducing their energy consumption and ask why and how people take one-time actions towards reducing their heat consumption. We present our findings in three themes of; energy literacy as enabler of heat reductions, motivation for heat reductions, and technology supporting heat reduction. We further discuss our findings as to how one-time actions for long-term energy reduction can be supported through interactive technology.