Practicing everyday life in the smart grid: gender, technologies and home comfort

The transition to low carbon societies necessitates a transition towards widespread use of renewable energies. The vision of a smart grid to foster the transition and a future exchange of energy between households as consumers (and prosumers) and energy providers is a cornerstone in this transition. On this background a range of smart technologies related to energy is entering the everyday life of households with the implicit purpose to change energy consumption and the related practices in the home. It is therefore vital to investigate how such technologies enter the homes of consumers and in what ways these technologies might change everyday practices that consume energy. In this vein, it is essential to understand the differences in how daily practices are carried out and how technologies take part in energy-consuming practices. Daily practices in households are inherently gendered and are also materially and socio-economically dependent. Thus, the introduction of new technologies in the home also have the potential of creating new ways of performing gendered everyday practices, including new forms of (un)equity among energy consumers. Therefore, this paper analyses data from qualitative interviews and home tours in different types of households, in two differing localities of Denmark, to investigate how smart heating technologies take part in forming energy-consuming practices related to home comfort. And furthermore, how these technologies and practices related to energy and comfort are performed between gender structures and daily life in the smart grid.