PORTS: an interdisciplinary and systemic approach to studying energy use in the home

In this paper, we present an alternative and novel approach to identifying energy demand reduction opportunities in the home. Through the creation of detailed narratives informed by our interdisciplinary research team of social scientists, designers and engineers, we employ a systemic view of how energy is consumed in the home. By interrogating clusters of people, objects and resources through time and space as they come together within our qualitative and quantitative research, we have identified opportunities for sustainable HCI design. This paper outlines our approach and presents an example product concept in relation to laundry.