Intelligent energy saving in the home: a user centred design perspective

Intelligent homes have been a vision for decades, with the ‘Home of the Future’ promising an automated, sophisticated place to live, packed with technology that responds to our every need. With a new focus on energy saving, intelligent homes are again being heralded as the way to a low carbon future. However, history demonstrates that people may not find the proposed technology simple to use, with issues of control, compatibility, trust and accessibility making this a problematic approach. This chapter discusses the potential for intelligent energy saving in the home and explores the human factors that create pitfalls to the successful roll out of smart energy saving devices. The importance of understanding the user needs as a critical success factor and the role of user centred design in the development of intelligent products, services and systems is outlined. Whilst focused on the domestic sector, there are learnings relevant to all buildings where there are users

Comprehension test on lighter symbols uk report

The Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute (ESRI) were commissioned by the LNE to carryout a UK comprehension test on symbols for lighters. The work, commissioned by LNE, is at the request of the European Federation of Lighters. The comprehension tests were carried out in accordance with the methodology in ISO 9186: 2001 Graphical symbols – Test methods for judged comprehensibility and for comprehension

Reasonable adjustments: collecting user experiences for a "solutions database"

The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) states that employers must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to the workplace for employees with disabilities. To help provide advice on this subject a project was undertaken to build a database of work related ‘solutions’ that would supply information to those that support people with disabilities about their potential work related needs. This paper presents one of a series of studies designed to determine the information requirements that would assist people with disabilities to join or rejoin the workforce

A persona-based approach to domestic energy retrofit

In order to improve the efficiency of the housing stock successfully, the offered technical solutions also need to meet occupants' needs and match their aspirations. Owner-occupiers present particular challenges: conflicting demands on their use of time and financial resources and their role as decision-makers for their own domestic renovation. A persona-driven study (based on user-centred design) was undertaken to explore the varying behaviours, attitudes and motivations towards home improvement for owner-occupiers who live in 'hard to treat' solid-walled dwellings. Five evidence-based personas are constructed that reflect archetypes, based on the outcomes of a qualitative study involving 33 owner-occupier householders in the East Midlands region of the UK. The adoption of a persona-based approach in response to the socio-technical challenges of energy renovation is important for understanding the specific drivers and appropriate range of policy responses for each persona. The persona development process is described and the success of the approach is evaluated in relation to the needs of policy developers, energy providers and product developers. Tailoring strategies to suit different personas will considerably enhance the diffusion of policy goals for low-energy retrofit and also allow business and technology developers to target an appropriate user. © 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis

AbilityMatch - building a disability management system

Results from preliminary studies have indicated that locating appropriate information on how to accommodate people with disabilities in the workplace can be a difficult and time consuming task. To help improve this situation research is being conducted to contribute to a comprehensive computer system for managing disabilities in the workplace. This is being done by using an integrated assessment of a person’s abilities combined with the requirements of a job to then identify workplace solutions or advice on how to overcome barriers, ultimately working towards the creation of an expert system of reasonable accommodations. This paper outlines the ongoing development of a solutions database for an existing assessment system, AbilityMatch

Blurred lines: how does cross-disciplinary research work in practice

This paper describes how cross-disciplinary research works in practice, illustrated through examples and experience from two large cross-disciplinary domestic energy research projects. The paper discusses the challenges of working across disciplines in this context and suggests a framework which helps to bridge the gap between technology developers or engineers and householders

Using a practice-orientated approach to inform the design of energy efficiency measures for older homes

CALEBRE, a four year research project, is developing technologies to improve the energy efficiency of solid-walled housing, particularly in the owner occupied market. The engineering partners within the project require very specific information from user centred design practitioners in order to develop innovative glazing, heating, ventilation and insulation technologies. However the project recognises that it is the 'soft factors' that must be addressed in order to make these measures acceptable and appealing to householders. This requires a deeper understanding of users' motivations for improving their homes and the complex interplay of factors relating to aesthetics, lifestyle, life events, energy efficiency and finance. Rather than solely focussing on specifying user requirements for each of the project's energy saving technologies, CALEBRE is taking a systemic approach, seeking to understand what householders value about their homes aesthetically and practically and the home improvement practices they currently adopt in order to maintain and improve their homes. The introduction of energy efficiency measures requires the homeowner to make major one- off (often irreversible) decisions relating to the structure and appearance of their homes. Understanding the factors shaping such significant acts of consumption is therefore essential if wide-scale adoption of such measures is going to be achieved. This paper presents the challenges associated with using a practice-orientated user-centred design approach to inform the design of energy efficiency measures and the strategies for retrofitting these technologies into older homes. It will introduce two data collection methods developed within CALEBRE specifically to address these challenges

Revision of body size criteria in standards - protecting people who work at height

The Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute was commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive to consider whether the body size criteria in standards which are used to test Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) safety needed revision. Currently, the PPE for workers at height is tested using a mass of 100 kg (BS EN 361: 2002), this being the minimum chosen weight to test this equipment. The 100kg mass represents the 95%ile weight of the UK adult population; this weight has also been used to represent the working at height population. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many people who work at height do not fall within the normal size distribution of UK adults on which the 100 kg was based on. The main aims of this research were to determine the actual weight distribution of individuals who work at height, also to collect basic anthropometric and demographic data, to establish whether the current relevant design standards are sufficient A total of 589 people who worked at height comprised the sample; 15 body measurements as well as demographic data were taken from each participant. Two additional dimensions were calculated (Weight of Equipment and Working Weight), to provide information on how much equipment people were carrying while working at height and to determine the total weight of the worker if they were to fall from height. Clothed Body Mass Index was also calculated for participants. Workers were allocated to one of 10 industry categories for more detailed analysis of the data. The re-sampling technique of bootstrapping was used on these data, as it provides distributions and confidence limits for any statistic. Bootstrapped confidence intervals for the 99th and 95th percentiles are given for Weight and for Working Weight. Results show that the current figure of 100 kg significantly underestimates the actual 95th percentile for workers Weight Without Equipment. It is likely (95% confidence) that the interval 112.3 kg 118.4 kg covers the true value of the 95th percentile for Weight Without Equipment and the interval 116.2 kg 122.0 kg covers the true value of the 95th percentile for Working Weight. Results also suggest that the torso dummy currently specified in BS EN 364: 1993 generally under-represents the size of people who work at height. Data that could be used in the design of a full bodied dummy or safety nets to prevent limb penetrations are presented

End user engagement with domestic hot water heating systems: design implications for future thermal storage technologies

The strategies used by householders for heating and using hot water heating have a significant impact on energy consumption in domestic buildings. A better understanding of the interaction between occupants and hot water heating systems can improve the energy efficiency of a building. This paper maps the interaction between occupants and their current domestic hot water heating systems to provide insights for the design of future thermal energy storage systems. A total of 35 householders from the Midlands region of the UK took part in semi-structured contextual interviews about their current strategies for the provision of hot water and the way they engage with their heating systems. Using the DNAs framework as an analysis lens, drivers, needs and actions relating to the provision of hot water were evaluated and four distinct hot water heating types are presented: On Demand, For All Eventualities, Just Enough and Sunny Days. Findings provide insights into occupants’ behaviour in relation to hot water heating usage and design implications for thermal energy storage technologies

Uncharted territory: daylight performance and occupant behaviour in a live classroom environment

In 2013, in an effort to improve the visual environment in future schools, a UK regulation specified mandatory daylight evaluations using, for the first time, climate-based metrics. Existing research on the daylighting performance of classrooms is limited and challenged by poor light measurement instrumentation, as well as the practicalities of the ‘live’ classroom setting. This paper describes an ongoing project aimed at providing evidence that will improve the understanding of how building occupants perceive daylight; how they respond to daylight performance due to the building design; and how their needs and actions shape the actual daylight performance of classrooms. A mixed method qualitative and quantitative approach is presented for the investigation of the aforementioned in four classrooms located in two secondary schools in the UK. Previously mentioned challenges are addressed by employing a High Dynamic Range imaging technique for monitoring physical data and the behaviour (blind and electric light use) of the occupants. The challenges encountered in the current study are discussed