IHD simulation - P008
From OpenWetWare
P008
Home Appliance
- Change electric stove to just stove
- Hot water heater
- Asked whether it was the small convection oven or the larger one
- Didn't know if the household one was electric
Pre-test
Q253 Rank
- Thought it was funny that there were only two pictures
- Indoor lights could mean multiple lights
- would rank it differently if it was just asking about one
Q Electricity cost/use
- Understood that greater demand means more expensive to provide
- Considers when people would be home and using appliances
- Understood that the cost/use questions were related
Q Power rating
- if it was user friendly, it might be more inviting for people to try to understand
- User friendly meaning that the average household user could understand, right now it's too technical
- Not sure whether to divide or multiple
- Adding would be a step-wise increase, which would be odd
Q Energy Saving Ranking
- Thought that the scale was reversed from the other ranking question
- Appliance ranking 1 the most use to 10 the least use
- Energy saving action ranking 1 the most energy saving to 7 the least saving
- Night light could be something on your desk or a small light plugged into the wall
- Freezer + washer are isolated appliances which means you might save less because they're used intermittently
Smith's House
- Thought that the scenario was based on the appliances displayed
- Doesn't relly get that you're supposed to learn about how much each appliance uses
- I think passive learning gives you a sense that you need to know the answers because the answers repeat again, so it makes you focus on them more so than just being presented with the simulation. I think people have a hard time tying the simulation back to the ranking questions and other questions asked before.
Simulation kWh by appliance
- Took only 5 minutes
- Felt pressured by the fact I was watching her
- Felt the lab environment prevented her from exploring
- Thought that if she took the survey at home she'd take more time to learn about each appliance
- Thought that if it was an app on her computer she'd spend even more time learning
- Imagined how much energy was used if things were run for X number of hours
- Then ran the appliances for an hour each to see how much they used
- Only for water heater and AC
- Adjusted temperature
- Washer and dryer
- Only tested four appliances
- Thinks if price or $ was included it could make it easier to understand
Post Test
Q Rank
- Changed answers based on simulation
- Only for freezer and how water heater
- Only then realized that she should have studied the simulation more
Q Price of electricity
- New guess based on info on Smith's intro page
- Used the $150 as an achor
Evaluation Phase
Q General suggestions
- Said it would be cool to see the changes from the old and new answers (pre & post tests)
- Changing through arrows was archaic considering technology today
- Pie chart of usage from the simulation or a visualization
Q Feedback Info
- Remake question because alignment is all messed up
Q Helpfulness
- Stringent to use arrows
- Not integrated into the house
- Active participation is required
- A lot like a piece of paper with unit conversions
- Conscious decisions to find out usage patterns
- Nutrition program
- Smart house, user does less. The simulation should do things on its own
- Needs to be more integrated into your life
- http://www.livestrong.com/myplate/
- http://www.acaloriecounter.com/
Q Reduction
- 6-10% reduction average
- 12% reduction max
- Can't completely control everyone else's usage, so it was hard to determine how much can be actually reduced
Q Display Type
- Understood instantaneous cost as cost then "cost/min" or "cost/sec"
- Thinks that total bill & instantaneous cost
- both important to plan budget
- Would be more inclined to use it if the sim looked better or "colorful"
Hypothesis: create a theoretical system to help people see how much electricity they were using
