An Experimental Research Design for Evaluating Energy Feedback

The role of digital energy feedback technologies in encouraging and supporting behaviour change is the subject of substantial current research effort. Effective evaluation of such technologies is an essential but challenging process for generating new knowledge in the field about what effects interventions have, and why. This paper describes the research design for the IDEAL project, a UK EPSRC-funded project developing and testing an innovative system to provide domestic energy feedback, tailored to the energy practices of each household, via a tablet computer. The paper highlights our experiences with the complexities of designing experimental interventions tested in real-world settings (i.e. actual households) over extended periods of time. We focus on those aspects of design which offer potential insights for similar projects, current and future. Our central conclusion is that for this kind of study, it is necessary to investigate the co-production of technological components and social processes in addition to measuring specific changes in domestic energy use.