Getting the measure of it: energy metrics and folk quanta

Dr Tom Roberts

18th of April 2013

Energy, climate and society:

Insights from early career researchers

University of Westminster

B

Outline

• Why energy metrics matter.

• What history of science tells us.

• A typology of energy and folk quanta.

• Comments on monitoring.

• Closing thoughts.

In science:

• Energy is always conserved. In every process, there is always the same total amount at the end as there was at the beginning.

• Energy is an abstract, mathematical idea, a property of an object or system that can be given a numerical value.

• Scientists measure energy: Joules, Calories, British thermal units, Watts and Kilowatt-hours etc...

• It is concerned with epistemic and technical forms of knowledge

Energy metrics matter:

Problems with energy conservation

In everyday life:

• Energy should be conserved. It can be felt, seen consumed and bought.

• Energy is a thing in the sense that it is used to do things. It holds a relational value.

• Consumers measure energy using informal measurement techniques known as ‘folk quanta.’ (Kempton and Montgomery, 1983).

• Is concerned with phronetic and forms of knowledge i.e. It involves practical reason and (Flyvbjerg, 2001;)

Energy metrics matter:

Invisibility and equivalence

‘Double invisibility’ • An invisible and abstract force entering the

household via hidden wires. (Hargreaves et al 2010)

• Consumption part of inconspicuous routines and habits difficult to link to specific actions (Shove, 2003).

• Difficulties of finding equivalence as multiple practice domains with different folk quanta. (Like Imperial and metric).

• Modern idea of energy masks a much richer past

• Energy, from Greek energeia, ‘activity’, from energos, ‘being in action’

• Corporeal energy – “Labour united the human and animal bodies” - ‘working like a horse’, ‘feeling his oats’, and ‘working in the traces’ (Nye,1998)

• 1590s – Galileo’s experiments

• 1599 – ‘Energy’ first used to describe ‘force or vigour of expression’.

• 1676 – Leibniz and ‘vis viva’

• 1807 – Thomas Young and ‘energy’

• 1840s – law of conservation of energy

Energy: theoretical construct to

industrial reality

Thinking energy otherwise:

A typology of energy and folk

quanta

Energy relationality

Corporeal

-energy felt

Kinaesthetic

- energy and

movement

Affectual –

energy you feel

you can affect

Fuel–

energy you

know you

have stored

Vicarious–

energy

experience

d indirectly

Energy relationality

Corporeal

Kinaesthetic

Affectual

Fuel

Vicarious

Engagement and

possible ‘change’ most

likely to occur closer to

the centre

Energy relationality

Corporeal

Kinaesthetic

Affectual

Fuel

Vicarious

Most behavioural change

agendas target.

In reality far more complex!

Corporeal

Corporeal-

energy felt

- ambient energy

-thermoception

-largely intuitive

‘If you’ve got something like a log fire,

just the sight of those flames has a

psychological effect to make you

feel warmer ...Yes, there is the

radiant heat but I think you get an

extra boost’ (U5)

Kinaesthetic

Kinaesthetic - energy and

movement

‘... kinaesthetic investments

orient us toward the material

affordances of the world

around us in particular

ways...(Sheller, 2005)

My relationship with my

my motion and chemical

energy on my bike is of a

very different quality to

the guy in the BMW

Affectual

Affectual –

Energy use you have

perceived agency over

-Purchasing and Waste decisions

‘You know, you lift the [food waste] at

the end of the week and you’ve got

15 kilos of wasted food. It makes

you... You know...that’s very tangible.

Whereas electricity, okay, it’s a bill’.

(U5)

-Explains why waste issues come up

when addressing energy

-Frugality; careful use of money,

goods, resources (i.e. avoid being

wasteful)

(Rettie and Harries, 2013; Evans

2001)

‘We only talk about things that

affect us […] we lose the bigger

picture about how things are

produced: the power stations,

nuclear, solar etc… cause we

can’t affect that stuff, can we?

(X7).

Fuel

Fuel–

‘potential’ or

stockpiled energy

-Stored food

-Wood

-Coal

-Gas / Oil

-Mpg and its relationship to distance

travelled

Vicarious

Labour saving devices

•Energy experienced vicariously

through machines (usually)

appreciated as replaces human

effort e.g. older generation and

washing machines.

•Today guilt over tumble dryer and

dishwasher

•Can we think in kettlefulls?

• £ compensates for inability to

convert energy units. (e.g., kilowatt

hours, gallons fuel, megajoules).

• Money becomes the common unit

for measuring all energy use.

(Silvis, Leighty and Karner 2007)

Energy experienced

vicariously through

technology and £

INT: Is there a reason for leaving your energy monitor on the cost mode?

U9: It sort of makes sense, penny per hour. The energy mode...it doesn’t mean anything.

INT: Doesn’t mean anything?

U9: Well does it? Does it mean anything to you? The penny per hour makes sense...if we could get it… down to say 2p an hour it would cost us, you know... 48p a day...

Energy relationality

Corporeal

Kinaesthetic

Affectual

Fuel

Vicarious

Need to make energy

consuming actions more

salient – pushing them

closer to the centre

Increase what we can 'affect’

Affectual –

I just thought, ‘why waste

money?’

Can be applied to shower

routines e.g. The 4 minute

shower!

Gas for heating some

success?

Electricity ?a lot harder!

e.g. Use Folk quanta that

are domain specific

Washing = No of ‘wears’

Increase what we feel

Corporeal-

energy felt

- ambient energy

-thermoception

-largely intuitive

Thermal imaging parties

-Make energy use / loss

salient in the home

I’m using how much £!?

• Monitors increase salience (at least initially) ‘[...]monitor’s ability to make energy use relational’ (Hargreaves 2010)

• Need to incorporate meaningful metrics and link with equivalent appliances and practices.

• Comparing apples and pears e.g. Kettles 90% efficient but spike - baseline or vampire more important!

• Also what is normal – who to compare with?

1. Language of conservation of energy confusing

2. Folk quanta important to behavioural change agenda as the units used can increase salience of energy.

3. Multiple units of measurement that incorporate meaningful folk units should be encouraged.

4. Not just a case of more and better measurement. E.g. EV and the search for new meaningful equivalent metrics to replace MPG.

5. Need to understand energy qualitatively or relationally as well as quantitatively.

6. Corporeal, kinaesthetic and affectual can be powerful ways of rethinking an approach to engagement with this topic.

Closing thoughts and policy implications

Thank you!

Dr Tom Roberts

t.roberts@kingston.ac.uk

www.smartcommunities.org.uk

• Community action project domestic energy reduction

• Prof Ruth Rettie, Dr Kevin Burchell and Dr Tom Roberts

• Team of local project partners

• Lots of community engagement!

• See: www.smartcommunities.org.uk

Smart Communities

E=MC2

FACTS...

• For traditional science educators:

• “Energy is the important bit of mathematics that you learn about if you ever study science at advanced level...people who do not know anything about it use the word ‘energy’ to mean all sorts of different things, most of which are silly. Take no notice of them”. (Warren, 1991:8-9)

Energy metrics and education

BUT...

• Children ‘start with ideas of energy related to personal experiences of human activities, vitalism and activity - “jumping about” or “being lively”’.

• Their conceptions of energy are, ‘messy, contradictory and obstinately persistent’. (Solomon, 1982)

And its not just school kids that thought of

energy this way...