Learning to live in a smart home

Hargreaves, Thomas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3764-7364, Wilson, Charlie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8164-3566 and Hauxwell-Baldwin, Richard (2018) Learning to live in a smart home. Building Research & Information, 46 (1). pp. 127-139. ISSN 0961-3218

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Abstract

Smart homes promise to significantly enhance domestic comfort, convenience, security and leisure whilst simultaneously reducing energy use through optimized home energy management. Their ability to achieve these multiple aims rests fundamentally on how they are used by householders, yet very little is currently known about this topic. The few studies that have explored the use of smart homes have tended to focus on special-interest groups and be quite short-term. This paper reports on new in-depth qualitative data that explore the domestication of a range of smart home technologies in 10 households participating in a nine-month field trial. Four core themes emerge: (1) smart home technologies are both technically and socially disruptive; (2) smart homes require forms of adaptation and familiarization from householders that can limit their use; (3) learning to use smart home technologies is a demanding and time-consuming task for which there is currently very little support available; and (4) there is little evidence that smart home technologies will generate substantial energy savings and, indeed, there is a risk that they may generate forms of energy intensification. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for policy, design and further research.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	domestication,field trial,qualitative analysis,smart homes,users
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Science, Society and Sustainability University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	26 Jan 2017 02:40
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2022 08:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/62186
DOI:	10.1080/09613218.2017.1286882

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