equilibrium-group-9

Equilibirum

How might we encourage families to use their major appliances at the right time?

The aim of our project is to nudge energy consumers to use energy efficiently by encouraging them to use their major appliances at the right time.

So, what is ’the right time’? It is when the supply of energy is high and the demand for energy is low. For example, doing laundry at night is more efficient because the demand on the grid is low.

By balancing the use of energy over the course of a day there will be less strain on the energy infrastructure and the outcome will be consumption equilibrium and lower environmental impact.

Creating behaviour change with a smart device.

We have created a smart device that is designed to press the start button of a clothes washer, dryer or dish washer.

The button allows the user to go through the same behaviour pattern as usual, packing and setting the appliance as neccessary. Lastly, a time period is specified, on the smart device, for when the user would like the task to be completed. The smart device will then press the start button of the appliance when the energy price is acceptably low.

The smart device receives information on the energy price and data from the smart grid within the specified time period, allowing users to consume energy conveniently and for less money.

The world needs equilibrium!

Efficient energy consumption is a worldwide challenge. The diverse backgrounds of our team highlighted the global need for a way to nudge consumers to use energy at the right time. This will allow suppliers such as DONG Energy to provide their customers with the cheapest, most environamtally friendly energy possible and create an equilibrium in the supply and demand system.

The automatic process of energy consumption.

Using energy has become and automatic process. We don’t think about the actions and consequences of our energy consumption. We observed that the behaviour of our target group consisted of a sequence of everyday actions resulting in inefficient energy consumption. Very often, the behavior was not purposeful but rather just a collection of tasks based on the outcomes of convenience and memory.

Change in behaviour without change in the automated process.

We realised that in order to create effective change in behaviour, we would have to target the automated process of inefficient energy consumption.

The task based approach to using major appliances does not allow for an intervention that forces users to think and make a rational decision. Instead we would like users to go through the motions of using their appliances, only having them interact with a crucial piece of technology at the right time. In doing so, without modifying their current behaviour, users will consume energy more efficiently and create system equlibirum by interacting with the same amount of appliance dials.

Managing energy means managing costs.

Major appliances account for 16% of household energy use. With the introduction of the smart grid, suppliers of energy, such as DONG Energy, will be able to intelligently monitor energy consumption at the household level.

A balance of this data. combined with a cheaper energy bill will indicate the effectiveness our solution.

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