Wiki source code of Storm Drain Final Project

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  1: = Representing and Visualizing Energy Use =
  2: 
  3: ====== **Storm Drain** ======
  4: 
  5: Matthew Thurston
  6: Jennifer Carlson
  7: Michael Odbert
  8: Terry Smith
  9: Tyler Howarth
 10: 
 11: 
 12: ====== Final Presentation ======
 13: 
 14: {{html}}
 15: <iframe src="https://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dcfqp96z_73cxftvffx&size=m" frameborder="0" width="555" height="451"></iframe>
 16: {{/html}}
 17: 
 18: ====== **Abstract** ======
 19: 
 20: (((
 21: As a group we are designing tools for motivating and visualizing energy use. We want to design a system that makes people want to save energy by bringing their exact energy use to their attention and presenting it in a way that can easily be understood.  A significant part of the difficulties that come with motivating individuals to conserve energy is making them aware of their energy use, and designing representations of that energy use in a format that's easy to interpret is critical to that motivation.  Current representations of energy use, especially the standard monthly energy bill, are often too convoluted and difficult for users to understand.  The standard bill, then, is not the most effective way to motivate users to conserve energy.  Our goal for this project was to discover which energy representations are the most effective motivators for energy conservation, and to address energy representations in every facet of an individual's life, from the appliances they use to the cars they drive and more, in order to visualize energy use as a system that the user is aware of throughout their daily life.
 22: 
 23: ====== **Keywords** ======
 24: )))
 25: 
 26: (((
 27: Energy(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) -(% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %) Any(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)source(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) of (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)usable(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) power, such as fossil fuel, electricity, or solar (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)radiation.
 28: )))
 29: 
 30: (((
 31: Represent(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) -(% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %) The(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) act of portrayal, (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)picturing,(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) or (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)other(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) rendering in visible (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)form.
 32: )))
 33: 
 34: Visualize(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) - To make perceptible to (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)the(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)mind(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)or(% style="font-weight: normal;" %) (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)imagination.
 35: 
 36: 
 37: ====== (% style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal;" %)**Problem/Goal**(%%) ======
 38: 
 39: ====== //Statement of the Problem / Goal//  — including how your understanding of the problem /goal has changed while you have worked on it over the period of the course ======
 40: 
 41: (((
 42: (% style="font-size: 1em;" %)Energy companies give poor representations of individual energy use. When a consumer gets the bill at the end of the month, all they see is the dollar amount and Watt usage.  Although the dollar amount is meaningful to users since people tend to be conscious of their money, many users don't have a clear idea of where they can conserve money in terms of their energy bill since they can't tell where the bulk of their bill is coming from.  Watts tend to be an abstract unit for users, and is not particularly applicable to their lives.  Showing energy consumption as something more tangible, such as money, coal, trees, etc. might be easier to understand and will make users feel as though they can interpret their energy bill better.  Therefore, current representations don't give a good sense of how much energy is actually being used, and don't adequately draw a user's focus to conserving energy.We want to change that.
 43: 
 44: (((
 45: After compiling our research, we found that a large part of the problem is making feedback more direct.  As stated above, not only is energy representation difficult to interpret and contextualize, but it is also represented indirectly, which makes the user more powerless to change their poor energy consumption behavior as it is occurring.  From the data we have collected through a survey and the information we discovered from previous research performed by others, we have also tried to incorporate the notion of real-time feedback into our energy representations since it does seem to be a crucial step in changing consumer behavior.
 46: 
 47: In the end, we have decided to compile the final results into a "day in the life" of an energy user and to show how a new energy system could help the user save energy.  We hope that our "day in the life" representations will show how users can monitor their energy use in many different facets of their daily life, and that the energy use can be direct, easy to understand, and meaningful in their everyday life.
 48: 
 49: 
 50: ====== //Rationale//  — explain why the problem /goal is interesting and important? ======
 51: )))
 52: )))
 53: 
 54: (((
 55: Because energy resources are limited and excessive energy consumption is having a detrimental impact to the environment, we need to find better ways to encourage people to conserve their energy use.  There are several ways that make energy conservation behavior difficult to improve, and the challenge when designing energy representations is to utilize previous research to change consumption behaviors for the good of the environment and community.
 56: 
 57: It is important to show people how much energy they use and how they can reduce their usage to reduce their impact on the earth and save the limited resources we have. 
 58: )))
 59: 
 60: It also saves money - something everyone likes!
 61: 
 62: 
 63: ====== **Methodologies** ======
 64: 
 65: We've looked at research by experts in the field of energy representation in order to determine the best representations in creating an overall energy representation system.  In addition to the data we collected by doing online research and reading numerous articles written about the subject, we designed and administered a survey amongst our contacts and classmates about what they consider the best motivators for energy conservation and energy representation.
 66: 
 67: After doing background research, we designed a mock-up of the type of system we'd like to see and have put it all together into an educational and hopefully interesting story about the "day in the life" of a character named Karen Smokestack.  The research and data is incorporated into each representation that is incorporated into Karen's day, and we'd like to show how individual energy behavior improves with the right combination of direct feedback and competition/awards, and that the system as a whole has the potential to save a high percentage of energy.
 68: 
 69: ====== **Related Work** ======
 70: 
 71: ====== //Use this section to argue the uniqueness of your contribution// ======
 72: 
 73: Our project will contribute several unique and interesting approaches to representing energy.  The most important is the fact that we want to focus in creating an overall system in which the user interacts with energy representation in several different ways throughout their day.  Only monitoring gas mileage in the car and neglecting energy use in the home, while it might save the user some money and conserve some gas, isn't going to make a significant shift in the traditional approach to energy consumption.  We would like to connect information from different sectors of energy use, from representations in the car to representations on household appliances.  In order to encourage users to conserve, this system should not only provide direct and meaningful feedback, but it should also encourage users to save energy as much as possible.  This will be achieved by the competitive and achievements facet of our research, which will also be incorporated into our overall system.  Our report, then, will be a change in the previous approaches since it will utilize research from different aspects of energy use and will be pooled together to show how energy conservation isn't a singular event throughout a user's day, but is an integral part of most of the tasks in their daily life.
 74: 
 75: 
 76: These are the key points we are addressing in our approach:
 77: 
 78: Real-time pricing
 79: 
 80: The Ability to adjust the thermostat based on real-time data
 81: 
 82: Abstract units do not mean anything
 83: 
 84: Energy usage is mostly invisible
 85: 
 86: Competition
 87: 
 88: Incentives.
 89: 
 90: 
 91: In addition to creating this overall system, our project will incorporate our own vision of this visualization.  We've created a sample of the in-home monitoring system that would represent the user's energy consumption.  These are are attached at the bottom of this report and will be incorporated into our explanation of the 'day in the life' story about Karen Smokestack.
 92: 
 93: ====== //Relationship of your Project to the Themes discussed in the Course// ======
 94: 
 95: We had Multiple Lectures on Energy:
 96: 
 97: (% style="margin-left: 1.5em;" %)
 98: * Sep. 15 - Application Domain: Energy
 99: ** We used a lot of the information from this lecture as background knowledge as we began our research.  The most important notion is that the current energy grid is based on a design from 1888, and that passive consumption of energy is encouraged in this archaic model.  More modern energy grids have the ability to motivate consumers to moderate and conserve their energy use in ways the previous ones can't.
100: * Nov. 8 - Simulations, Visualizations, Eco-Arts and Warehouses for Energy Sustainability
101: ** The fact that people should feel psychological ownership of the energy domain was the most applicable information we found from this lecture.  When people feel this ownership, they are likely to learn more and make more energy-conscious decisions.
102: * Nov. 10 - Meta-Design Environments for Energy Sustainability
103: ** The most interesting and useful information from this lecture includes the notion that smart grids encourage more consumer participation and that the smart grid needs to be simple, accessible, and it shouldn't interfere with how users live their lives.
104: 
105: (((
106: ====== **Characterization of the Individual Contributions** ======
107: 
108: We've been focusing on three main areas of research and analysis: Physical Representations, Competition/Achievement Systems, and Personal Motivations.
109: 
110: 
111: ====== //Physical Representations// - What models are in use; how energy use is presented to the consumer. ======
112: )))
113: 
114: (% dir="ltr" %)
115: (((
116: (% dir="ltr" %)
117: (((
118: (% dir="ltr" %)
119: (((
120: (% style="font-size: 1em;" %)
121: (((
122: Participants: Matt
123: )))
124: 
125: (((
126: (% class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" %)We have looked into direct physical representations as a means of conveying energy use to the consumer. This allows for constant real time feedback to the user about their energy use. This method uses devices placed throughout a residence to show the consumer their use. This constant reminder of energy use cuases people to be more conscious about their use and save more. Currently there are some devices on the market such as the "Wattson" and the "Kill-A-Watt" which provide real time feedback. Studies show that this type of representation is the most (% style="vertical-align: baseline;" %)effective(% style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" %) in helping people to lower their energy use. Our goal is to use this idea and improve (% style="vertical-align: baseline;" %)upon(% style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" %) it to maximize its (% style="vertical-align: baseline;" %)effectiveness(% style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" %). 
127: 
128: There are some issues with the existing devices. The "Wattson" is limited because it displays only the total usage for the entire residence so it is easy to tell how much energy you are using but difficult to pinpoint the devices which are pulling a lot of energy. The Kill-A-Watt solves this by displaying energy use on the appliance level.  The "Kill-A-Watt" though is confined to the plug area so a conscious effort must be made on a regular basis to check the information provided by the "Kill-A-Watt", which is only a number of watts. If this information could be conveyed directly by an appliance in a more readable fashion it would be more helpful for the consumer.
129: 
130: (% class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 1em;" %)Optimally a whole system would be installed in a house which would (%%)constantly (% class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 1em;" %)relay information to the user about their energy use both on the whole and on the appliance level. This information should be (%%)available(% class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 1em;" %) as both raw data relaying the number of Watts used as well as a (%%)general(% class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 1em;" %) (%%)representation which gives an idea of whether the usage is higher or lower than what would be expected. This system would also relay information of real time energy pricing. This would help consumers delay high energy use appliances such as washing machines to lower-cost times.
131: 
132: Though this method is very effective in lowering energy use, but it also has an extremely high cost of implementation. It either requires a large investment on the part of the consumer or a commitment on the part of manufactures to begin to implement this technology. It also requires cooperation on the part of energy companies to provide real time use costs.
133: )))
134: )))
135: )))
136: )))
137: 
138: 
139: ====== //Competition/Achievement Systems__ __//- Efficacy of competition and achievements in energy conservation; energy use within a community ======
140: 
141: (% style="font-size: 1em;" %)
142: (((
143: Participants: Tyler, Michael
144: )))
145: 
146: (% style="font-size: 1em;" %)
147: (((
148: Achievement Systems
149: )))
150: 
151: (% style="font-size: 1em;" %)
152: (((
153: We have investigated and analyzed existing platforms such as Xbox Live, Foursquare, and College Dorm Energy Competition. All of these utilize social competition and achievements to motivate involvement. The most effective platform seems to be Xbox Live. Xbox created a point system for each game they release. When you do certain things in a game, you can get a specific achievement, which in turn gives you points for your "gamerscore". A gamerscore is the total amount of achievements you have across all the games you play. Having a higher score than someone only means you have played more games than someone else. It really has no meaning or value. Still, the system has turned into a large competition system where everyone tries to get as many points as they can. Perhaps this is because having more points than someone gives you bragging rights over them and a higher status in the Xbox live community. We find it amazing how numbers that only relate to how much time you have spent playing video games motivates people to play more and more games.
154: 
155: There are many pros of a competition based system such as achievements. A lot of people love competition. It can be fun to be involved in a competition and even better when you get rewarded for your accomplishments. Competition also drives interaction between people.
156: 
157: But not everyone wants to be competitive, and there is no way of making someone be part of a system when they don't want to. Also, the implementation can become complicated. As a designer of such a system, one needs to find a fair way to give out achievements as well as accurately figure out what achievements an individual has met.
158: )))
159: 
160: 
161: Competition
162: 
163: We want to incorporate competition between neighbors and businesses, and even on a larger scales between neighborhoods, towns, or even states! Right now we'll just focus on competition between neighbors. You can see what percentile of energy usage you are at in your neighborhood. Based off of that, people will be motivated to get to a higher percentile because of each individual's desire to behave like the group they are a part of. There will also be opportunities to get achievements based on how much energy you use compared to your neighbors. In the end, there can even be leader boards of who is saving the most and who is doing the best overall in energy savings.
164: \\Findings and Results (indicate specifically the aspect of the project you are most proud of)
165: 
166: (((
167: (% style="font-size: 1em;" %)
168: (((
169: We want to design a system that is much like the Xbox achievements. Achievements will be worth different amounts of points which will actually be useful. But unlike Xbox achievements, you will be able to redeem points for different rewards such as cuts on your energy bill, or gift cards from companies. Companies can advertise their energy-awareness by supporting this program.
170: )))
171: 
172: (% style="margin-left: 1.5em; font-size: 1em;" %)
173: * E.g. "You used 10% less energy this month than you did last month, so you receive 100 points. At 1000 points you can redeem your points for a 1% reduction in your energy bill."
174: )))
175: 
176: We are most proud of the fact that our system can behave like a game. Current energy tools are far from being fun and game-like.
177: 
178: We will always provide positive feedback for achievements. It will be simple, drive competition, and get people to save energy!
179: 
180: 
181: ====== //Personal Motivations - //How can we motivate personal change in energy conservation? ======
182: 
183: Participants: Terry, Jennifer
184: 
185: 
186: (((
187: "A revolution doesn't happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviors"
188: )))
189: 
190: (((
191: -Clay Shirky, Digital Guru
192: 
193: (((
194: When motivating individuals to conserve energy, there are several factors that affect the user's willingness to conserve.   These issues in behavioral science can either work against their potential to conserve or, if exploited in the right ways, can be used to change an individual's mindset about energy conservation for the good. The first, 'time inconsistency,' says that an individual's decisions change depending on the time in which their decision is based; therefore, inconsistencies occur when "somehow preferences of some of the selves are not aligned with each other" ("Dynamic inconsistency," wikipedia.org).  This relates directly to the issue of purchasing energy-efficient appliances or light bulbs; the initial cost is so high that people often would rather pay for a cheap incandescent bulb in the present than offset future savings by spending more money.
195: 
196: Another issue is called the public good problem or the "free rider problem."  This issue arises when people consume more than their fair share of resources; in terms of energy conservation, there's a mentality that individuals have in which they believe that since other people aren't monitoring their energy use, that any conservation on the individual's part won't inevitably make much of a difference.  In addition to time inconsistency and the public good problem, bounded rationality plays a major role in the decision-making process of energy conservation.  This issue has been discussed in class, and it's based on the idea that an individual will make decisions based on the information they have, and that everyone has a certain knowledge which their decisions are founded upon.
197: 
198: 
199: Taken altogether, it is clear that meaningful and timely feedback are key factors in making a significant impact on changing an individual's energy consumption behavior.  For example, the energy bill that an individual receives every month that is difficult to interpret is limiting the information that the individual has on their energy use. Therefore, their decisions about how to conserve energy is based on very limited knowledge and steps they take to conserve might not be as successful as others who understand their energy use better.  In addition, real-time feedback can influence an individual's decision; "past studies suggest that more frequent feedback tends to be more effective" (Erhardt-Martinez, Donnelly, and Latner, "Advanced Metering Initiatives").  Therefore, feedback that is more direct has more potential to save energy, and studies have shown that the most direct feedback, real-time feedback, can save between 5-15% in energy consumption (Erhardt-Martinez).  This is compared to the study which showed that indirect feedback, the type that is shown in traditional energy bills, only results in energy savings from 0-10%.
200: )))
201: 
202: (((
203: (((
204: After researching individual energy consumption, the most important factors in this motivation include providing direct, real-time feedback which is easy to interpret.  
205: )))
206: )))
207: )))
208: 
209: ====== //Bringing it together: //Findings and Results ======
210: 
211: "Providing households with frequent, ongoing, and meaningful feedback regarding their energy consumption practices results in significant residential sector energy savings while engaging people to become (% style="font-weight: bold;" %)part of the energy solution(%%)" - (% style="font-size: 0.696325em;" %)Advanced Metering Initiatives and Residential Feedback Programs
212: 
213: "Feedback gadgets alone are unlikely to maximize household energy savings. Instead, the most effective forms of feedback are likely to include both products and services that provide consumers with a combination of detailed, frequent and ongoing energy consumption information as well as a meaningful context within which to interpret the information, a variety of motivational tools, and tailored suggestions for reducing energy consumption." 
214: 
215: -(% style="font-style: italic;" %) Advanced Metering Initiatives paper
216: 
217: 
218: 
219: (% style="font-style: normal;" %)As a whole, we've seen that in-home monitoring systems tend to be expensive and difficult to install, but are more effective in terms of energy conservation.  As part of the attempt to maximize energy conservation, we believe that these systems should be implemented more in the future.  In addition to these monitoring systems, we've looked at competition and achievements and found that people can be motivated to save more energy when competition and rewards are a factor in their conservation.  For our final presentation, we would like to show how competition and achievements can be used to encourage energy conscious behavior.  In addition to these findings, we've looked at different factors in motivating individual behavior, and the most crucial element in this motivation is providing direct, real-time, meaningful feedback.  In order to incorporate this into our final presentation, we will show how all of the visualizations we use incorporate real-time feedback.
220: 
221: 
222: ====== References ======
223: 
224: (do not only provide a list at the end — but link to them from your document text where you indicate why this reference is important)
225: 
226: (% style="font-size: 0.7em;" %)
227: (((
228: Erhardt-Martinez, Donnelly, Kat A. & Laitner, John. "Advanced Metering Initiatives and Residential Feedback Programs: A Meta-Review for Household Electricity-Saving Opportunities." ACEE Report #E105, June 2010.
229: \\Erhardt-Martinez. "Policy Innovations and People: Active Participants in the Energy Revolution" April 26, 2010.
230: )))
231: 
232: (% style="font-size: 0.7em;" %)
233: (((
234: 
235: )))
236: 
237: (% style="font-size: 0.7em;" %)
238: (((
239: McMakin, Andrea, Malone, Elizabeth, and Lundgren, Regina.  "Motivating Residents to Conserve Energy without Financial Incentives." Environment and Behavior Journal. Feb 2002.
240: )))
241: 
242: (% style="font-size: 0.7em;" %)
243: (((
244: 
245: )))
246: 
247: Todd, Annika. "Behavioral Science is the New Green: the Stanford Energy Reduction Initiative." The Observer. May 2010.
248: 
249: 
250: 
251: ====== **IMAGES** ======
252: 
253: These images are a mock up of what we want our main control panel in the house to look like. It will be an interactive touch screen that shows various types of data. Each screen has buttons to other menus and also lists the current indoor and outdoor temperature. We want this to take the place of a thermostat, so it will also need to have all the capabilities that a normal thermostat has.
254: 
255: **Main** - On the main screen, it will display how much energy you are currently using as well as tell you how much energy costs in real time. There will be a graph of the energy price time line so you can see exactly where you are in the day. If you are using energy at a peak time, there will be a warning telling you that you might want to try using less. There will also be data on where you are in energy use when compared to your neighbors, such as what percentile of energy use you are in.
256: 
257: [[image:Main.jpg]]
258: 
259: **__House__**
260: 
261: The house view breaks down the house into rooms and shows how much energy each room is using. This allows for you to isolate energy usage and try to cut back on certain rooms if the energy usage is too high. If the main lights (light switch) is on in a room, the room will be highlighted such as the kitchen. This will let you know what lights are on so you could turn them off from the console if you don't want those light on.
262: 
263: [[image:House.jpg]]
264: 
265: **__Achievements__**
266: 
267: The Achievement screen will list all the achievements that you have gotten, what they mean, and how many points each achievement is worth. There is also another possibility for a different screen that allows you to see all the achievements that are possible. At the top, it will show the total amount of points that you currently have.
268: 
269: [[image:Ach.jpg]]
270: 
271: **__Rewards__**
272: 
273: The rewards screen is very similar to the achievements screen. It lists the rewards that you can buy with the points that you have and how much each of those awards cost. Some rewards are related to the electric company such as getting a cut on your next bill. Other rewards might be gift cards to businesses that are partnered with the energy company so they can advertise that they are "energy conscious"
274: 
275: [[image:rewards.jpg]]
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