research-article

"show-me": water consumption at a glance to promote water conservation in the shower

Authors:

Thomas GrechenigAuthors Info & Claims

Persuasive '09: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology

Article No.: 26, Pages 1 - 6

https://doi.org/10.1145/1541948.1541984

Published: 26 April 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Water is a scarce resource worldwide. Yet, we have many opportunities to conserve it. One particular opportunity for water conservation is the shower, because depending on the shower head and shower habits, an individual can save many liters of fresh water each day. Feedback proved to be an effective method to promote sustainable behavior. Therefore, in this paper we suggest to promote water conservation by providing feedback in form of an ambient display that can easily be integrated in current shower types. We built a prototype to study the potential of such a feedback device. These shower water meter (show-me) display the amount of water, that is used during one shower in form of LEDs assembled on a stick. Thus, an increasing water level is visualized. The user study revealed two groups. The subjects who considered themselves as ecologically conscious changed their behavior and turned the water down or off while soaping. Also, they are willing to pursue this behavior. Other subjects who did not have the goal to act more sustainable, were surprised about their water consumption and tried to reduce it. However, after the removal of the show-me device they did not maintain their behavior and fell back into their previous habit.

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Cited By

Christoforakos LKolb ADiefenbach S(2024)I did it once, but can I do it again? The role of responsibility attribution and self-efficacy in technology for sustainable behavior changeProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685339(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685339
Sultana SAkter RSultana ZReza SAhmed SRzeszotarski J(2024)Understanding Environmental Sustainability and Information Practices in Global South Fish FarmingExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650831(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650831
Manfreda AErjavec J(2023)Nudging Towards Sustainable Public TransportationHandbook of Research on Promoting Sustainable Public Transportation Strategies in Urban Environments10.4018/978-1-6684-5996-6.ch006(120-140)Online publication date: 10-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5996-6.ch006
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Index Terms

"show-me": water consumption at a glance to promote water conservation in the shower
1. Applied computing
  1. Law, social and behavioral sciences
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

Persuasive '09: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology

April 2009

279 pages

ISBN:9781605583761

DOI:10.1145/1541948

Program Chairs:
Samir Chatterjee
Claremont Graduate University
,
Parvati Dev
Innovation in Learning Inc

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 April 2009

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Persuasive 2009

Persuasive 2009: Persuasive 2009; 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology

April 26 - 29, 2009

California, Claremont, USA

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Persuasive '09 Paper Acceptance Rate 21 of 66 submissions, 32%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 32 of 137 submissions, 23%

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Cited By

Christoforakos LKolb ADiefenbach S(2024)I did it once, but can I do it again? The role of responsibility attribution and self-efficacy in technology for sustainable behavior changeProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685339(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685339
Sultana SAkter RSultana ZReza SAhmed SRzeszotarski J(2024)Understanding Environmental Sustainability and Information Practices in Global South Fish FarmingExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650831(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650831
Manfreda AErjavec J(2023)Nudging Towards Sustainable Public TransportationHandbook of Research on Promoting Sustainable Public Transportation Strategies in Urban Environments10.4018/978-1-6684-5996-6.ch006(120-140)Online publication date: 10-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5996-6.ch006
Rezvanpour MChen Y(2023)Space Cooling Energy Potential of Domestic Cold Water before Household Consumption in Cold-Climate RegionsBuildings10.3390/buildings1306149113:6(1491)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13061491
Grönewald LWeiblen JLaschke MChristoforakos LHassenzahl M(2023)Sustainability by Design. How to Encourage Users to Choose Energy-Saving Programs and Settings when Washing LaundryProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581150(1-14)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581150
Vargas-Cruz JVidal-Villeda CAlberto CCamelo-Romero P(2022)Water Consumption Monitoring System and Home Automation Based on LOGO! 8.3 and AWS Cloud Connection2022 10th International Conference on Control, Mechatronics and Automation (ICCMA)10.1109/ICCMA56665.2022.10011459(179-183)Online publication date: 9-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCMA56665.2022.10011459
Menneer TQi ZTaylor TPaterson CTu GElliott LMorrissey KMueller M(2021)Changes in Domestic Energy and Water Usage during the UK COVID-19 Lockdown Using High-Resolution Temporal DataInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health10.3390/ijerph1813681818:13(6818)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136818
Desjardins ABiggs HKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)Data EpicsProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445241(1-17)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445241
Hartley KLim NTortajada C(2021)Policy Note: Digital Feedback-Based Interventions for Water ConservationWater Economics and Policy10.1142/S2382624X2071004607:01Online publication date: 25-Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.1142/S2382624X20710046
Tabuenca BBorner DKalz M(2021)Effects of an Ambient Learning Display on Noise Levels and Perceived Learning in a Secondary SchoolIEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies10.1109/TLT.2021.305603814:1(69-80)Online publication date: Feb-2021
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