"Show-Me" - water conservation through ambient feedback

Abstract

Resource conservation has become a pressing issue around the world. Therefore it is necessary to create an increased awareness. Besides the prominent topic of energyconservation the conservation of water is still often neglected. Yet, there exist many opportunities to conserve it In order to address this issue the present research deals with the daily water consumption in the shower. Since feedback proved to be an effective method to promote sustainable behavior a prototype was built that delivers feedback on the water consumption during a shower. The feedback is provided by an ambient display. The shower water meter (show-me) displays the increasing amount of water that is used during one shower in form of LEDs assembled on a stick. In a user study it has shown that this approach is an effective way for initiating a change towards a more sustainable behavior. Furthermore, it turned out that this transition proceeds in three distinct phases until finally a permanent sustainable behavior is reached.

Thomas Grechenig

Ao.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn.

• Mail: thomas.grechenig@tuwien.ac.at
• Phone: +43 1 58801 183400