Exploring the Flexibility of Everyday Practices for Shifting Energy Consumption through ClockCast

Encouraging sustainable living by raising awareness of resource consumption has long been a topic within HCI. However, getting people to change behavior when it comes to energy consumption is difficult. This is one of the major challenges ahead for future energy systems, in particular if resources are renewable and plentiful. We developed the ClockCast prototypes (web and clock forecast) to explore demand response and the flexibility potential of everyday practices. We wanted to reframe the conversation on demand response: from highlighting when not to use energy to highlighting when to use it. The ClockCast prototypes display the best times to use electricity, and they were complemented by proactive and positive suggestions. We conducted a pilot study with five different households to uncover the socio-technical challenges around shifting consumption and the participants' experiences with the prototypes. While the participants increased their awareness of the environmental implications of their actions, shifted some electricity use, and found the forecasts useful, some participants also reported newfound guilt when they did not follow the forecasts.