Designing an adaptive feedback platform for encouraging energy efficiency behaviors: A practical case in Portuguese households

This article describes the main considerations when designing a feedback platform for encouraging end users on adopting more efficient consumption behaviors. A review on behavioral models and the main characteristics of current feedback systems is performed, being completed with a description of an experimental case on 472 households in Portugal to which a feedback platform has been developed to raise awareness towards more efficient energy consumption habits. The design process of the platform is described, in which early findings show that it is not enough to design a platform with features that may increase usability but, more importantly, a hypothesis is outlined premising that a careful and tailored communication strategy should be performed to encourage end users on interacting with the platform, thus engaging into more efficient consumption behaviors. This article contributes to solidify the knowledge base of energy efficiency behavior, which so often regards separately different sciences such as behavior economics, engineering or social sciences, leading to a high sparsity of conclusions on this topic.