Collective Solar Power Consumption for Local Energy Efficiency: a Contextual User Research and an Interaction Design

This book is the final result of a graduation project of ?Design for Interaction?. It includes an exploration of the field of electricity for consumption, solar power production and energy management systems. Since the target group to design for was specified ? the ?green-minded? people from Lombok, a neighbourhood in Utrecht, the Netherlands, a contextual user research was done. The lessons learned from literature and the user research led to an interactive interface design and recommendations for services. The system should result in a change of energy consumption behaviour, in order to efficiently make use of the locally generated solar power. The complete system included several measurement components a server and an interface. Four households tested the working prototype. An evaluation session, focused on the concept of sharing locally produced solar power and adjusting one?s energy consumption, showed that households are, to a certain extend, able and willing to contribute to sustainable energy consumption.