Lecture 19

pdf version

Meta-Design Environments for Energy Sustainability

Gerhard Fischer, Hal Eden, and Holger Dick — Fall Semester 2010

gerhard@colorado.edu; haleden@colorado.edu; holger.dick@gmail.com;  

November 10, 2010

background: VIBE and OpenEI: http://vibe.nrel.gov/ + http://en.openei.org/wiki/OpenEI:About

Foundations of Human-Centered Design

working computational systems (no errors, no bugs)

?

usability (usable and useful, user-centered design)

?

sociability (sense of belonging, privacy, reputation, recognition, meta-design)

?

changing human behavior (becoming more {energy, health} conscious)

Revisiting Meta-Design
<<see lecture on 9/27>>

• meta-design = creating new media and new technologies that allow users to act as designers and be creative (rather than being confined to consumers)

• meta-design emphasizes

• the creation of context rather than content
• puts the tools rather than the object of design in your hands
• does not define a product, but the conditions for a process of interaction

• meta-design expands boundaries and redistributes control

• motivation: a critical aspect of meta-design

• what will make humans want to become designers/active contributors over time?
• what will make humans want to share?

Energy Sustainability: Different Levels of Engagement
<<see lecture on 10/11 on “richer ecologies”>>

passive consumer (using electricity and paying the bill)

?

active, informed decision maker (knowing about hybrid vehicles)

?

contributor (e.g.: to OpenEI)

?

curator, facilitator (e.g.: of themes / collections in OpenEI

?

meta-designer (creating the mechanisms for OpenEI;
seeding it with information)

<<similar roles exist in creating, enforcing, and following policies
 for energy sustainability>>

VIBE — Virtual Information Bridge to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

http://vibe.nrel.gov/

• a portal that showcases unique analyses, applications, and links to information that exists on many sites within the energy world

• grounded in Model-Authoritative

• visual showcase of information and data, and an index of applications and tools related to renewable energy and energy efficiency

VIBE Themes

Open Energy Information initiative (OpenEI)

http://en.openei.org/

• aspects of OpenEI:

• a platform to connect the world’s energy data
• linked open data platform bringing together energy information to provide improved analyses, unique visualizations, and real-time access to data
• follows guidelines set by the White House’s Open Government Initiative , which is focused on transparency, collaboration, and participation ? Model-Democratic
• provides open access to this energy information, with the ultimate goal of spurring creativity and driving innovation in the energy sector

• Secretary Chu (Department of Energy)

• “This information platform will allow people across the globe to benefit from the Department of Energy’s clean energy data and technical resources.”
• “The true potential of this tool will grow with the public’s participation – as they add new data and share their expertise – to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need to broadly deploy the clean energy resources of the future.”

Smart Grid and Smart Meters

• the integration of advanced technologies, such as smart meters, centralized generation, distributed generation, renewable energy and Energy Storage

• an extensive communications network increasing communication between resources allowing utilities to better match supply and demand

• continued development of the Smart Grid ? more efficient utilization of assets resulting in reduced fuel consumption, reduced CO2 emissions, and increased grid reliability

Meta-Design and Cultures of Participation
 Facilitated by the Smart Grid

• how things are:

• For most consumers, energy has long been considered a passive purchase with few choices
• The typical electric bill is largely unintelligible to consumers and delivered days after the consumption actually occurs – giving consumers no visibility into decisions they could be making regarding their energy consumption.

• how things could / should be:

• transformation from a centralized, producer-controlled network to one that is less centralized and more consumer-interactive
• a smarter grid promises to change the industry’s entire business model and its relationship with all stakeholders, involving and affecting utilities, regulators, energy service providers, technology and automation vendors and all consumers of electric power

Research Challenges Pursued within the Smart Grid

Smart Meters

• an enabling technology that makes it possible to extract value from two-way communication in support of distributed technologies and consumer participation ? cultures of participation

• an important underlying assumption:

• Consumers are more willing to be engaged (based on their experience with time-differentiated service thanks to time-dependent cell phone rates and airline fares
• they might want insight and visibility into the energy choices they are making

• empirical finding: The message from consumers about the Smart Grid ? Keep It Simple.

• interface with the Smart Grid needs to simple, accessible and in no way interfere with how they live their lives
• “set-it-and-forget-it” technology, enabling consumers to easily adjust their own energy use

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

• an approach to integrating consumers based upon the development of open standards

• provides consumers with the ability to use electricity more efficiently

• provides utilities with the ability to detect problems on their systems and operate them more efficiently

• enables consumer-friendly efficiency concepts like “Prices to Devices” (e.g.: price signals are relayed to “smart” home controllers or end-consumer devices like thermostats, washer/dryers and refrigerators ? these devices process the information based on consumers’ wishes and power accordingly

If you can not measure it, you can not improve it

Lord Kelvin

Assignment 11

Do these Questions Indicate a Long Tail in Energy Sustainability?
<<see lecture on 11/3 on “Long Tail”>>

Awesome: should I buy a more fuel efficient car

• fuel efficiency and …. ? design trade-offs

• costs of buying a fuel efficient car
• fuel efficient cars are also smaller and could be less safe than a large vehicle
• we live in an inclement weather area, the car needs to be good in the snow

• Treehugger (a popular environmentalist blog)

• pretty extensive vehicle section with related news
• does not have any real comparisons between cars

• OpenEI:

• an incentive program in California for buying a fuel efficient vehicle
• it would be nice if the site had some charts that compared existing vehicles.

• contributing to OpenEI:

• I would not want put together information that did not personally relate to me

StormDrain: whether or not to purchase laundry detergent designed for cold-water use

issues to be explored:

whether the price of this special detergent is greater than the price of regular detergent

whether the chemicals used to make the detergent dissolve easily in cold water are safe for the environment and one's health

Web resources:

Most of the web resources were pages written by the detergent company Tide advertising their cold water detergent

I was surprised at the lack of resources about this topic ? question: do these resources not exist or were they not found?

Motivation:

Detergent is not something that will really get people super interested and willing to participate

Hippotomi: increasing use and energy efficiency of public transportation

• public transportation is more than the existence of energy-efficient vehicles

• population density
• “last mile” problem
• US 36 corridor planning
• CU: find a rental car company that rents cars to people under 25 (“buy ? rent”)

• OpenEI:

• Urban Transportation Emission Calculator

• contributing to OpenEI:

• Having an emotional investment into the environment and being an active component of the community would also affect whether we'd make additions to the site

MakeshiftCrew: reducing emissions in cars (hybrids and electric and more) and renewable energy to reduce smog

• interest is based on:

• reduce smog
• end dependency on foreign oil

• trust / objectivity:

• it seems like this is a biased website that wants to go green

• questions:

• car with gasoline: regular fuel or diesel (“clean diesel”, higher emissions by diesel) ? hybrid cars ? electric cars
• infrastructures for electric cars
• costs of oil in 5 years from now?

• extensions to OpenEI:

• One thing about the Hybrid Car Calculator that I did not like was that you can only compare a few conventional vehicles, and it requires you to compare the Prius to the a manual Honda Civic, which few people actually have

AberleHenriksonFischerAparicio: use of more efficient light bulbs over standard incandescent ones

• locating relevant information ? web sites:

• United States Department of Energy fact sheet about compact fluorescent bulbs compare to incandescent.
• A guide helping users switch the lights in their home: information on choosing the correct bulbs and properly disposing of old bulbs
• A calculator that helps project savings based on the specific amount of incandescent lights that will be replaced.

• policy issues:

• Some places, like Nevada, will have a law that bulbs that aren't as efficient as things like CFLs, won't be allowed to be sold

• incentives:

• Other rebate programs, like this one in Longmont, allows you to get a money rebate when you purchase more efficient (and therefore more expensive) bulbs.This does help bring the cost of bulbs down, however, $2 isn't much when you're paying for say, $40 of light bulbs.

Cacti: does the energy involved in creation of "sustainable" products outweigh the energy saved with their use?

• "should I buy a Prius?"

• We had heard that the energy that went into producing the Prius's fancy sustainable batteries costs drastically more than any savings it could offset during its lifetime
• many scientists are saying that the Prius is actually bad for the environment. Some are even asserting that it has a worse impact on our world than the widely-hated Hummer (from http://hubpages.com/hub/Prius)

• Open EI really discusses the benefits of renewables, not really the cost associated in their production

• contributing to OpenEI:

• contributing information is very simple, but what would motivate us to do so?
• do we have valuable information and the drive to share and update this information so that our fellow people can see the truth about whether creation of "sustainable" products outweigh the energy saved with their use.
• if we have the drive to create a page other people with insight could also add to it ? SER Model

WeLovePeaches: find solutions that correspond to issues that are happening in the present without looking at repercussions

• putting out fires — looking at gains in the short term future

• we as humans tend to find solutions that correspond to issues that are happening in the present without looking at the repercussions which might have a strong impact on the environment.
• Many of the computers, cell phones, and other modern devices find themselves in the dumpster

• energy generation with nuclear power plants: ? radioactive waste

• nuclear power plants ? “not in my backyard”

• contributing to OpenEI:

• We would want to ensure any information added to the site on such a serious topic was completely correct and factual before adding it
• contributing to OpenEI is harder because it's obvious the site does not receive a high volume of internet traffic compared to holy grail of Wikis: Wikipedia