A GAMIFICATION BASED APPROACH FOR USERS' BEHAVIOR CHANGE TOWARDS POWER CONSUMPTION REDUCTION
A GAMIFICATION BASED APPROACH FOR USERS' BEHAVIOR CHANGE TOWARDS POWER CONSUMPTION REDUCTION

Summary/Abstract: To be able to sustain the ever-expanding energy requirements of our society, changes are needed both in regards to the sources of energy, but also regarding the reduction of waste through public awareness and involvement. The concepts of smart grids and smart meters are hot topics due to the proven improvements they offer and even applications dedicated to the end user offering generic energy-reduction advice have been proven to lead to change in the user’s behaviour. The availability of energy consumption information specific to each appliance is necessary to be able to draw clear conclusions, to formulate practical recommendations and to design action points. These suggestions can be integrated in game-like applications that motivate users to engage and reduce their consumption. We propose a device that is able to separate the energy consumption of each appliance in a house by disaggregating data collected when attached to the power meter. There already are successful gamified energy monitoring solutions, but this device will offer granulated data that will elevate the level by offering exact, individual, clear action points. Furthermore, atomized information about the electric consumption of each appliance provides a method for accurate tracking of the results- making available not only the overall efficiency, but also enabling the automatic check of how many suggestions the user followed, how much improvement one has done and quantifying these to obtain the metrics for success and to be able to follow a real-life progress path without user input. The interest of the public in ecological, environmental issues is rising, but understanding the impact of every-day actions on our electrical fingerprint is difficult without field knowledge or a monitoring method. Our solution is meant to both empower the public to make informed decisions and to quantify their progress to enhance the drive and motivation through gamification methods.

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