eViz - Energy Visualisation for Carbon Reduction

eViz uses innovative digital techniques to transform energy decisions and behaviour. People's behaviour can cause energy use to be 30-40% higher than Building experts anticipate. Generally, people are keen on saving energy for financial as well as environmental motives. However, uncertainty remains about the exact benefits of installing energy-efficiency measures and changing household habits. Despite a long tradition of energy advice, energy efficiency measures remain pallid and unconvincing, removed from people's day-to-day experiences. There is a gap between abstract, invisible energy flows and people's desire to understand their energy use and become more energy efficient. We offer a solution that bridges this gap.

Our previous work has shown that visualising energy loss by means of thermal images led householders to install more energy-efficiency measures and reduced their energy bills when audited a year later, compared to a conventional energy audit (Goodhew et al., 2012). Building on this, the present research will take a major step forward by using novel digital data visualisation techniques to present intuitive, easily graspable representations of energy flows. Using our virtual reality and data visualisation expertise, we will produce sophisticated interactive 3D and 4D representations of energy flows. We will add and overlay scientific projections of future states to direct observations and employ a range of approaches including webcams, simulation, smartphones, and social media such as facebook.

Energy flows will be visualised as a function of house type (e.g., detached), any retrofits undertaken (e.g., loft insulation) and occupant behaviour (e.g., opening windows). Visualisations will be developed with users to evaluate their intuitiveness and motivational properties. We will include interactive tailored visualisations as well as generic "walk-throughs" for domestic and public buildings. The Energy Saving Trust and other partners have agreed to disseminate visualisations through their web-site and dedicated events. The best visualisations will be used in field trials with our UK and International partners to evaluate financial and carbon savings over time. Social media (e.g., facebook) will be exploited to engage a wider range of people with this information. We will evaluate which types of visualisations and data people are willing to share (and which attract most attention and debate in their social network) and examine how people use these to discuss and reduce energy use.

Our research programme will increase understanding of energy dynamics as a function of occupant behaviour and building characteristics. It will allow experts to make better predictions of energy efficiency and design buildings around human behaviour, and it will help occupants to change their habitual behaviour (e.g., open windows) to reduce energy use as well as motivate them to take up offers of energy-efficiency measures (e.g., loft insulation). All of these together will contribute to energy demand reduction and help people take charge of their energy use to future-proof their buildings in the face of rising energy cost and climate change.

UK newspaper headlines report two issues just as we are finalising the eViz research progamme. First, the UK's carbon emissions have increased for the first time since 2007, one reason being increased home heating in the winter of 2010 (Guardian, 8th February 2011). Second, average household energy bills have doubled in the past six years and are expected to rise by up to 60% more by 2020 (Independent, 10th February 2011). The present research is dedicated to helping people stay warm in the context of attaining the UK's carbon reduction targets.

The eViz proposal responds to a BuildTEDDI call on energy demand reduction to help meet the UK's carbon reduction targets. We propose energy visualisation as an important pathway to enhancing people's understanding and decision making with regard to energy use. Beyond the academic beneficiaries, the present research will benefit the commercial sector, national and international policymakers, the public and third sector and the wider public.

The Commercial sector will benefit from a truly integrated project that intertwines the technology and people angle. Behaviour change is recently much referred to as an important tool for societal change yet many commercial organisations, especially on the technology and computing side lack the required expertise to integrate behaviour change approaches into their work. We work with three technical partners who have all expressed huge interest in understanding how to communicate better through their products and may be willing to integrate the approaches we will test into future commercial development. For example, novel methods of visualising and presenting energy data will help C3Resources and Schneider Electric to meet their client's energy efficiency needs.

National and international policy makers will benefit from the dissemination of our research (successes as well as stumbling blocks) and seek interchange and feedback at both levels. At the national level, we collaborate with local government who are aiming to raise energy awareness and reduce carbon emissions in their own buildings and staff but are also interested in exploring policy mechanisms that implement any voluntary change. At the international level, we are lucky in having Prof Stephen Sheppard on our Advisory Panel who has links to the government in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Pahl and Sheppard are already co-authoring a Pacific Institute for Climate Change (PICS) invited White Paper. With our well-established European and UK contacts this will add an important international dimension to impact.

The public and third sector will benefit from visualisation approaches to reducing their carbon emissions that have considerable commercial value, and from sharing the in-depth evaluation of our methods. One vehicle to sharing this experience is through our partner the Carbon Action Network (CAN). When we distributed a call for partners through them, we received overwhelming interest from local governments throughout the UK, and from Community-Interest-Companies that now manage former social housing. Many of these expressions of interest revolve around the problem of increasing energy prices and fuel poverty. While our tools do not directly target fuel poverty, they could easily be adopted in this specific context. We also received a reply from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and from several schools (see Letters of Support and Attachment 'Expressions of Interest').

The general public (and future generations) will benefit from the reduced carbon emissions expected as a consequence of behaviour change and better understanding of energy dynamics following our visualisations. In the nearer terms, people who we include in eViz will understand energy dynamics better which will empower them to take control of their energy use. We also approach energy use with sophisticated highly engaging tools (e.g., immersive, using apps). We have chosen this approach to engage people in a positive fashion with energy (and by extension, climate change) rather than focusing on scare scenarios, facts and 'telling off'. Beyond the participants in our studies, the general public will be reached through dedicated events run by our partners and through their communication channels.

Our best-practice guide will be available to all interested stakeholders free of cost via our dedicated eViz web-site. We have already been asked to write a piece in the Psychologist, the public- and policy facing professional journal for psychologists.