Energy mirror: A design exploration of physical and ambient visualizations for residential energy consumption

Existing eco-feedback designs that focus on residential energy conservation aim to create energy awareness and encourage consumers to reduce excessive use. A shortcoming that is common in many designs is the effort and time that users need to put into understanding the information presented. This project aims to increase the accessibility of information and energy awareness by making use of ambient and physical visualizations. The energy mirror design brings information into users' home environment by physically embodying the energy consumption data. The design adopts a slow technology approach by creating a consistent and gradual awareness of the users' energy consumption while also allowing instant feedback on the current power draw. The user study for the project involves interaction simulations and use scenarios with the participants where their feedback for the design was collected. The results provide insights that can be useful for future work that takes a similar approach to eco-feedback design. Specifically, the results highlight the privacy and conflict issues that may arise while attempting to increase the accessibility to the data.