BeAware will investigate the relationship between users, environment and applications in the area of energy conservation. The research program includes laboratory studies, on-line tools and in-field observations and serves the needs of EnergyLife development as well as advancing the scientific knowledge. Below is a short, updated description of activities started so far.

Reports

Scientific results on energy conservation behaviors: State of the art

The scientific literature is examined to identify current models of energy consumption behavior and the characteristics of feedback that prove effective to increase energy conservation. The results of this literature review inform the requirement of BeAware prototype, the description of its features and the validation metrics adopted. The synthesis of 70+ articles (out of an original collection of 731) is integrated with the report of 9 interviews to stakeholders (environmentalist associations, governmental agencies, house appliance producers in Finland and Italy).
PROGRESS SO FAR: Completed. ON-LINE RESOURCES: D2.1. CONTACT PERSON: Luciano Gamberini. BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.1.

Saving potential in households

Report on Finnish/Swedish/Italian electricity consumption. For each country, information is provided on climate, morphology, energy policy, and energy demands; typical household composition and ownership; billing system and meters available to consumers; typical appliances. The report works as a valuable reference for several decisions about the field trials in the project.
PROGRESS SO FAR: Completed. ON-LINE RESOURCES: D2.1. CONTACT PERSON: Pasquale Monti, Monica Löf. BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.2.
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Capturing the users’ perspective
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The Smart Meter study

The smart meter is probably the most common device to provide feedback about energy consumption in the household. The study analyses the usability of the smart meter installed in Italian households by interviewing consumers who are Italian native speakers, pay their own electricity bill and have no special expertise in engineering or electronics. They are interviewed in their house, and requested to obtain some information from the smart meter. Video-recordings of the task executions and a questionnaire on satisfaction are analyzed. The goal is to find out which information is easy to get with and without instructions’ manual, what prevents users from successfully completing a task, and what is their overall evaluation of the meter.
PROGRESS SO FAR: Study completed. Publication in preparation. ON-LINE RESOURCES: D.2.2. CONTACT PERSON: Luciano Gamberini. BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.3.

The Appliance Meter study

The study was conducted with 20 Finnish consumers who loaned a meter for household appliances from their energy utility.
PROGRESS SO FAR: The study is completed. Different classes of users were defined according to their motivations. It turned out that the meters made the amount of consumed energy appear so negligible that consumers felt discourage to adopt any conservation practice. The lesson is that a meter needs to make the individual users’ action appear as having an actual impact. ON-LINE RESOURCES
The study was presented at EEDAL09. CONTACT PERSON: Giulio Jacucci, Lassi Likkanen.
BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.3.

Prototype testing

The sensing system and the mobile interface are tested and monitored in 2 instrumented houses in Italy and Finland. Iterative tests with users are performed in order to assess the usability of each new feature of the interface as it is released. The results are reported back to developers.
PROGRESS SO FAR: Ongoing. The scientific approach followed in defining requirements along with the results of a first run of usability tests are described in a paper published on PsychNology Journal. ON-LINE RESOURCES: Paper on PsychNology Journal. CONTACT PERSON: Luciano Gamberini, Giulio Jacucci
BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.3.
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Modeling conservation practices
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What is waste and to whom? Categorizing consumption practices within the household.

The knowledge gained from the literature is essential, but we also need to study the actual, current context in which the project is operating. This is crucial to understand what are the main areas of improvement to be targeted, and in which way conservation practices are seen by real people in their ordinary life. A set of tools is used to this purposes, currently including a comprehensive exploratory questionnaire administered to adults in Finland and Italy, a family interview protocol and an on-line survey in 4 languages
PROGRESS SO FAR: 200 exploratory questionnaires administered and coded; 20 family interviews conducted and under analysis; on-line survey active on this website ON-LINE RESOURCES:
Preliminary results are reported in D2.2; the on-line survey is available from this link.
CONTACT PERSON: Luciano Gamberini. BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.4.

Measuring conservation practices: implicit versus explicit measures

Two aspects of conservation behavior are compared, namely the memory of the behavior and the admission of that behavior; the former depends on the actual production of that behavior and is investigated through implicit measures, the latter depends on the desirability of a behavior and is investigated through explicit measures. The goal is to compare measurement techniques, to investigate the effect of awareness on the implicit and explicit components and to identify the desirability of different conservation behaviors.
PROGRESS SO FAR: The study has been completed with 180 participants. A paper is in preparation ON-LINE RESOURCES: Some results are briefly reported in D2.2  CONTACT PERSON: Luciano Gamberini. BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.4.

Changing habits: the role of sustained attention

What makes a person monitor his/her behavior in the delicate phase in which s/he needs to change habits, for instance to adopt energy conservation practices? This study considers the role of sustained attention,and measures it in people with different levels of ’saving’ behaviors. PROGRESS SO FAR: a first study with 37 adults has been completed. A second study is in preparation. ON-LINE RESOURCES: Preliminary results are reported in D2.2 CONTACT PERSON: Luciano Gamberini. BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.4.

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Confidentiality policy
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The project consortium has elaborated and undersigned a confidentiality policy document. The policy aims at regulating the collection, storage, treatment and dissemination of personal data that are needed to pursue the project objectives. The policy follows the ethics code elaborated by professional associations (The American Psychological Association, The British Psychological Association, IEEE, Association for Computing Machinery) and the Privacy Laws at rule in the countries where users’ data are planned to be collected [EU Data protection Law (Directive 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC), Finnish Personal Data Act (523/1999), Italian Privacy Law (Ds 196/2003), Swedish Personal Data Act: Personuppgiftslagen (1998:204)]
PROGRESS SO FAR: Completed. ON-LINE RESOURCES: Download Policy. BEAWARE WORKPLAN: WP 2, Task 2.5.