Investigating One-Time Actions for Domestic Energy Reduction: The Case of District Heating

The design of interactive technology meant to change people’s behavior to save energy in the home has occupied HCI researchers in the last decades. In this paper, we extend current HCI literature by investigating one-time actions for long-term energy reduction. We report from an empirical study using district heating as a case. District heating is a way of heating houses where hot water is distributed through a network of pipes from energy supplier to individual buildings. We report from interviews with energy suppliers and households interested in reducing their energy consumption and ask why and how people take one-time actions towards reducing their heat consumption. We present our findings in three themes of; energy literacy as enabler of heat reductions, motivation for heat reductions, and technology supporting heat reduction. We further discuss our findings as to how one-time actions for long-term energy reduction can be supported through interactive technology.