Improving energy efficiency of product use: an exploration of environmental impacts of household cold appliance usage patterns

This report presents the findings from a qualitative study investigating how product design can be used to change consumer behaviour to reduce the household energy consumption. A fundamental aspect of this aim is to fill the gap in existing research by understanding the product use behaviour and its impacts on the environment. Household cold appliances were chosen as a case to explore the capacity of designer-conducted user studies to identify unsustainable aspects of product use. Usercentred research techniques [1, 2] including questionnaires, semi-structured interview and Product-in- Use observations were used to collect information about the “actual” and “assumed” needs, the diversity in use context, the unsustainable and sustainable use patterns and the hidden factors behind the usage. Eighteen British families were involved in this qualitative study. This paper presents the methods and process for extracting design oriented information from the behaviour study in the early phases of energy efficient products development. It concludes that usage patterns study can offer resources to assist manufacturers and designers minimise environmental impacts product use. Also it discusses the implications for the future design of household cold appliances.