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Doing the laundry with agents: a field trial of a future smart energy system in the home

Costanza, Enrico; Fischer, Joel E.; Colley, James; Rodden, Tom; Ramchurn, Sarvapali D.; Jennings, Nicholas R.

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Authors

Enrico Costanza

JOEL FISCHER Joel.Fischer@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Human-Computer Interaction

James Colley

TOM RODDEN TOM.RODDEN@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Research & Knowledge Exchange

Sarvapali D. Ramchurn

Nicholas R. Jennings



Abstract

Future energy systems that rely on renewable energy may bring about a radical shift in how we use energy in our homes. We developed and prototyped a future scenario with highly variable, real-time electricity prices due to a grid that mainly relies on renewables. We designed and deployed an agent-based interactive system that enables users to effectively operate the washing machine in this scenario. The system is used to book timeslots of washing machine use so that the agent can help to minimize the cost of a wash by charging a battery at times when electricity is cheap. We carried out a deployment in 10 households in order to uncover the socio-technical challenges around integrating new technologies into everyday routines. The findings reveal tensions that arise when deploying a rationalistic system to manage contingently and socially organized domestic practices. We discuss the trade-offs between utility and convenience inherent in smart grid applications; and illustrate how certain design choices position applications along this spectrum.

Citation

Costanza, E., Fischer, J. E., Colley, J., Rodden, T., Ramchurn, S. D., & Jennings, N. R. (2014). Doing the laundry with agents: a field trial of a future smart energy system in the home. In CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (813–822). https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557167

Conference Name CHI 2014: SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Conference Location Toronto, Canada
Start Date Apr 26, 2014
End Date May 1, 2014
Publication Date Apr 26, 2014
Deposit Date Jan 29, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Publisher Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2014-April
Pages 813–822
Book Title CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
ISBN 9781450324731
DOI https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557167
Keywords energy, smart grid, field trial, autonomous agents, real-time pricing, demand response
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/726588
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557167
Additional Information Published in: CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 813-822 New York : ACM, c2014. ISBN: 9781450324731 DOI: 10.1145/2556288.2557167

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