Analysing domestic activity to reduce household energy consumption

This paper presents our reflections on the issue of behavioral change according to energy conservation constraints and on the status of sustainability in the design of ambient interactive systems at home. We point out how ergonomics contributes to the study of human factors underlying energy consumption. Relating to situated cognition and human computer interaction, our approach relies both on the ergonomic evaluation of feedback consumption displays and on the modeling of domestic activities in order to identify household concerns in real settings. We present empirical results to illustrate this global approach. The results of those studies allow the design of interactive systems: informative and pedagogical systems as well as pervasive and adaptive ambient systems. In our approach, sustainability is taken into account as a design criterion, as security could be, whereas the main design purpose is to aid households in their daily life in order to build a "sustainable situation".