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PowerPedia: changing energy usage with the help of a community-based smartphone application

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Abstract

When it comes to conserving electricity, it is crucial for users to know how much energy is consumed by individual appliances. However, the technical feedback provided by existing energy consumption feedback systems in the form of dry numbers and intangible units is not appropriate for most users. To address this shortcoming, we developed PowerPedia, a system that provides behavior-influencing feedback over and above pure consumption values. By integrating a community platform—a Wikipedia for electrical appliances—PowerPedia enables users to identify and compare the consumption of their domestic appliances with that of others. It thus helps users to better understand their electricity consumption and take effective action to save electricity.

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Notes

  1. Nineteen out of 22 countries covered by the International Energy Agency (IEA) provide detailed insights into household energy use.

  2. Sales surpassed 41 million units in Q3 2009, a 12.8% increase over the same period the previous year [29].

  3. For example: EnergyStar, http://www.energystar.gov; Top 10, http://www.top10.ch; Sus-it, http://www.sust-it.net; US Department of Energy, http://www.energy.gov/applianceselectronics.htm.

  4. Three experts from academia, 4 industry experts, and 4 employees of consumer organizations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, our industry partners Landis + Gyr, Illwerke VKW, and EWZ as well as Adrian Merkle, Claire-Michelle Loock, Fabian Aggeler, and Verena Tiefenbeck for their help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Pervasive Computing, Bits to Energy Lab, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

    Markus Weiss & Friedemann Mattern

  2. Information Management, Bits to Energy Lab, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

    Thorsten Staake & Elgar Fleisch

Authors
  1. Markus Weiss
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  2. Thorsten Staake
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  3. Friedemann Mattern
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  4. Elgar Fleisch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Weiss.

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Weiss, M., Staake, T., Mattern, F. et al. PowerPedia: changing energy usage with the help of a community-based smartphone application. Pers Ubiquit Comput 16, 655–664 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0432-y

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