Ctech
Description: Creating the Energy for Change
PI: Alexa Spence, Horizon Digital Economy Research, University of Nottingham
Fund: £1.3m, BuildTEDDI
Project lifespan: Oct 2012 to Sept 2017
Contact: alexa.spence@nottingham.ac.uk
Website: http://www.energyforchange.ac.uk/
Aims
Ctech is a multidisciplinary project investigating ways of dividing up and representing energy use in the workplace so as to motivate occupants to save energy.
Methodology
WP1: Taking ownership – Identifying who is using energy, how to assign responsibility and feed back information to users.
=> Technical data assessment and design workshops.
WP2: Putting it together – Considers different ways of combining data and how to put it in context within the building, existing routines and motivations that people have for using and saving energy.
=> Ethnography, prototype development and psychological studies.
WP3: People power – Focused on changing user’s behaviour collectively. Will examine how people interact around energy goals and cooperate to achieve energy savings.
=> Psychological studies and interdisciplinary applied theme days in partner sites.
Findings
Findings will inform technical, design and policy recommendations for energy monitoring in workplaces and other shared spaces. We will also develop a tool kit to disseminate to interested organisations comprising key learnings and prototypes developed.
Key Outputs
Spence, A., Leygue, C., Bedwell, B. and O’Malley (2014). Engaging with energy reduction: Does a climate change frame have the potential for achieving broader sustainable behaviour? Journal of Environmental Psychology. 38, 17-28.
Leygue, C., Skatova, A., Spence, A., Ferguson, E. and Bedwell, B. (September, 2013). Communal energy displays: How do people react to energy sharing and free riding. Paper Presentation at Environmental Psychology Conference, Magdeburg, Germany.
Colley, J. A., Bedwell, B., Crabtree, A. and Rodden, T. (2013). Exploring Reactions to Widespread Energy Monitoring. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT, 8120, 91-108.
Academic partners
University of Nottingham
Southampton University
Centre for Sustainable Energy
Commercial partners
Antenna
Arup
WilSon Energy Siemens Communications
eSight