This study uses a Danish energy supplier - which also provides an energy monitoring technological application – to present four personas reflecting different ways of engaging in and practicing energy monitoring. Such a technological artefact provides new opportunities for householders to engage in energy monitoring practices. This analysis has illustrated how similar customers (and users) approach such a practice in different ways, while also emphasizing how renewable energy monitoring practices are related to the socio-technical context. Such an emphasis is to be considered in the design of adequate technology to enhance renewable energy monitoring, due to its sporadic nature, as Denmark moves into its green transition.
The personas derived in this paper are based on the methodological approach outlined by Nielsen (2019), which consists of writing short stories based on interviews with users of technology or software. Our results paint a concise picture of each of the household personas to present ways they can be supported in their renewable energy monitoring initiative through technology and policy design.
Table 2 summarises the four energy monitoring household personas empirically defined in this study. They present differences in terms of their engagement in monitoring renewable energy supply – and its related usage - as a practice. They also have divergent views on what it takes to be ‘green’ as a household. Finally, they offer diverse opportunities for future energy monitoring technology design.
In particular, the personas of this paper will give insights around: 1) energy monitoring practices in households, 2) the socio-technical challenges related to renewable energy monitoring at the household level, 3) energy monitoring technology usage in the household, and finally, 4) renewable energy monitoring as a practice, resulting in opportunities and -or- barriers for better energy monitoring technology and policy design.
What all these household personas have in common is usage of the energy monitoring technology acting as an element holding their renewable energy monitoring – and its related usage- practices together. That is, regardless of the level of interaction with the said technology (see Tchatchoua et al. 2023). It is important to acknowledge at this stage that these energy monitoring household personas are rather similar by means of socio-economic characteristics. They are all based in the greater Copenhagen region. They also share similar technological competences and motivation, for example by being early adopters (Rogers 2003) with a keen interest in technology. For them, the energy monitoring technology is a ‘fashionable object of desire’ (Pantzar 1997). A key element in these personas is householders’ ‘wish list’ for future energy monitoring technology design. Finally, these personas are to be perceived as typical representations of different energy monitoring households.
Table 1
Overview of household personas.
Household persona | Engagement in energy monitoring as a practice | What it means to follow sustainable routines as a household | Opportunity for future technology design |
Blue | Dedicated and playful: Using energy monitoring technology is enjoyable | Energy monitoring is one step closer to following sustainable routines. | Comparison of renewable energy consumption with similar households. |
Green | Organised: Engagement with the energy monitoring technology is irregular yet practical. | Following sustainable routines is time-consuming and needs to fit into other everyday routines. | Integration of several energy sources (digital and analogue) in the same technology. |
Red | Sporadic: Engagement with the energy monitoring technology varies a lot. | Following sustainable routines is about taking care of the planet and using less energy. | Include advice on better ways of using energy from renewable sources, for example based on historical energy consumption data. |
Yellow | Convenient: Comfort and what makes everyday practices function come first. | Following sustainable routines is about trying to live more sustainable by for example washing less. | Better integration with smart home systems. |
Overall, across the four personas, there were little interest in prices as an incentive for energy monitoring their everyday household practices1. The primary reason for monitoring renewable energy availability was for charging EVs and time-varying prices was not perceived as a primary motivator for time-shifting additional household energy consumption practice. Such practice has obvious implications for technology and policy design measures that typically focus on price reduction as a sole motivator.
Furthermore, the personas presented in this paper highlight that those householders, despite the same cultural and geographical settings, do vary in their socio-material settings when it comes to renewable energy monitoring – and its related usage. Thus, different practices are to be considered in energy monitoring technology design. To some extent, these resulting personas resonate with the scarce findings on personas from the practice theory literature as aforementioned in the introductory section of this paper.
On the other hand, it is clear from our results that all household personas appreciated the renewable energy data visualisation affordance (see Fig. 1) provided by the energy monitoring technology. In other words, all four personas appreciated – albeit initially for some - the feedback they received from the technologies. The dedicated energy monitoring household persona demonstrates this most strongly, reflecting that energy monitoring is an experience as well as a task, placing a high priority on the experience or skill. To this effect, Shove et al. (2012) highlight the value in developing competences in practices.
The dedicated energy monitoring household provides a real opportunity for policy makers and developers. The provision of subsidised renewable energy tariffs coupled with innovative technological solutions to support SDGs should offer the opportunity for playful energy monitoring households to shift their energy demands even more. This is owned to the fact that some of these households are motivated – and have capacity - to put up with the disruption and effort energy monitoring as a practice requires.
The organised energy monitoring household takes after the idea of ‘the resource man’ developed by Strengers (2014). Here, there is an existing aspiration to monitor energy and thus align renewable energy consumption practices. However, the organised energy monitoring household is characterised by having one main actor who interacts with the technology and is in charge of what (Tolmie et al., 2007) describe as digital housekeeping or Martin describes as energy housekeeping (Martin 2022). Meanwhile, the female adult in the household still takes charge of the more traditional type of housekeeping. One of the informants in this type of households conceded: ‘I tell my wife what to do and she does it’. They were referring to the best times to put the washing machine on according to renewable energy availability slots by this statement. Similar examples of gendered divisions of household labour and digital/energy housekeeping have also been shown in a paper by Martin (2022) as well as within other studies (Johnson 2020; Aagaard 2022; Aggeli et al. 2022).
Opportunities for energy monitoring technologies’ design would only be viable if the household dynamics can be changed to allow for both adult actors to take part in the energy monitoring practice.
Similarly, the sporadic energy monitoring households also want to improve their energy monitoring practice as a household, however, their everyday setting is not conducive of routinised practices. That is, in line with the current renewable energy monitoring – and related usage - routine that the technology advocates. To these types of households, energy monitoring technology is a support that needs reminders for its very usage. This household persona relies heavily on the experience from previous usage of the energy monitoring technology for continuous energy monitoring practice during busy periods.
Finally, for the convenient energy monitoring household persona, there exists a more gender-equal energy monitoring approach between the partnered adults. That is, in these types of households, adults in the household tend to possess a similar motivation and aptitude to use the energy monitoring technology to support their renewable energy monitoring and consumption practices. Both the adults in this type of household persona appear to work as a team when interacting and communicating their preferences in relation to energy monitoring to one another. In effect, this household persona finds the energy monitoring technological artefact to be a solid foundation in their renewable energy monitoring and consumption routines; this includes their decision making as a team. Close energy monitoring communication unfortunately also means that when one adult becomes reluctant to use the technology, they might influence the other one to follow suit. Intuitive technology design with a mixed cohort of stakeholders would prove suitable for the development of technology and policies for such households.
The gendered differences in households’ use of smart energy technologies in the home has also been addressed by other authors, such as Aagaard and Madsen (2022), who show that in ‘frontrunner’ households it is often the male householder who is the engaged and competent user of the smart home technologies (SHT), while in non-frontrunner households the engagement and competence in using SHT can be more evenly shared. Thus, these gendered differences in and between households is central to consider in the design and implementation of smart home technologies and households’ energy monitoring practices.
6. Scope for further research
This study presents a scope for further research and validation of four derived personas due to the fact the sample of informants was limited and quite homogenous. To exemplify this, 12 of the 14 households included in this sample were electric vehicle owners (Tesla), which was important for choosing Barry as an energy provider and the related technology to monitor energy consumption. Having stated that, homogenous sampling is not foreign in energy-related studies – see for example Wunderlich et al. (2013). The study’s focus was to capture householders at the forefront of the energy monitoring chain as a practice, so we could learn from them for future energy monitoring technology design for a more diverse group of users. We posit that this study offers a rich foundation for further investigations that could use a wider sample with a mixed cohort of informants and supplementary sources of data.
7. Design implications
The presented household energy monitoring personas advocate for customisable energy monitoring technological artefacts to meet various household specific demands. In addition to this, every household persona reported in this study typically has acquired the energy monitoring technology following the acquisition of a new electric vehicle. However, yet only half of the derived household personas (the dedicated and organised personas) present a keen enthusiasm for using the energy monitoring technology to support their renewable energy consumption.
Moreover, some of the household personas -although technically apt-, felt patronised by the energy monitoring technology notifications. In response to this, the households felt reluctant to alter certain practices they deemed necessary and non-negotiable energy consumption practices, for instance cooking. As a result, the householders would typically turn off all notifications from the energy monitoring technology. This behaviour could be explained by findings from a growing body of research that reveals how some households find imposed energy-saving policies demotivating - see (Ellegård and Palm 2011). We see these models of households as part of a nascent and an emerging body of studies that need particular attention, as post pandemic flexible working methods influence the way householders consume energy. This study is important as the world slumbers in the current energy and climate crisis with the war in Ukraine.
These four personas thus provide us with an insight into the motivations behind energy monitoring at the household level. In so doing, they create opportunities for engagement with renewable energy monitoring (and consumption) technology design within Denmark – and the world by and large.
Literature does explain that there remain households that will never engage with technology long term (Jensen et al. 2018). This is perhaps owned to the fact that their private circumstances mean they transition into different household settings frequently, hence them being unable to find a form of stability necessary for regular energy monitoring. Households occupied by the elderly may struggle with the ability to meet the demands of technology usage. To this effect, energy monitoring technology design is to allow for such households and find ways to afford them to partake in renewable energy monitoring and consumption activities regardless of the sporadicity of such energy. Similarly, renewable energy monitoring and consumption design measures could include different renewable energy tariffs to cater for and incentivise such households. The said measures could allow for renewable energy availability to be given priority to elderly householders for instance, thus leading to a default reduction in need to interact with energy monitoring technology in such households.
Finally, it is worth emphasising here that the household personas specified in this paper are subject to change over time - depending on their current social set up. That is, one household in a specific persona may move onto another with time depending on a new context and social circumstances – after a divorce for example. In other words, a dedicated energy monitoring household may become organised for instance – or vice versa. This persona type evolution could also to linked to a shift in focus in renewable energy monitoring routine. Successful energy monitoring technology and policy designs are thus to allow for flexibility to cater for these potential changes in social circumstances.