Yidong Huang

Abstract:

The energy transition is essential in addressing the challenges of climate change. Even with the rise of low-carbon energy production, reducing energy consumption remains critical. While efficiency improvements in equipment contribute to this goal, their benefits are often offset by increased usage—a phenomenon known as the rebound effect. Encouraging behavioral change is therefore equally important to achieve meaningful reductions in consumption.

Over the past four decades, approaches to encouraging behavioral change have been studied across disciplines. In Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), eco-feedback systems have been widely explored for their potential to help people reduce energy use by promoting sustainable practices. However, most eco-feedback systems emphasize the consequences of consumption without contextualising them in light of the human activities that cause them. Because electricity is abstract and largely invisible in daily life, making these causal links explicit could foster more impactful behavioral change. Positioned at the intersection of Personal Informatics, Eco-Feedback, and Human–Building Interaction, this thesis investigates how HCI can reveal these causal relationships. Specifically, it focuses on the temporal dimension of energy use in residential contexts, examining how user interfaces can help people establish causal links when there is a long delay between an action and the perception of its consequences. To this end, we explore two complementary principles: anticipation (future-oriented) and reflection (past-oriented).