Enhancing Energy Conservation by a Household Energy Game

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study, comparing a game versus a dashboard with respect to energy conservation in the household. In a pretest- posttest design, an empirical study tested whether change in attitude, knowledge, engagement and behaviour with respect to energy conservation in the household was different for participants playing Powersaver Game compared to a control condition where participants used an energy dashboard with the same content, but excluding game features. The aim of this game (developed using an iterative user-centered game design methodology) is to influence household energy consumption by means of electricity and gas usage in the long-term. The intervention time was at least 5 weeks and pre and post measures based on 21 days intervals. All energy conservation activities that the application provides (e.g. washing clothes on low temperatures) take place in the real world and feedback is based on real time energy consumption. This inverse gamification principle aims to optimize the transfer between the game world and the real world. Energy consumption significantly changed in the game condition com- pared to the control condition, and the difference between both conditions is more than 33% after the intervention. In the game condition, knowledge about energy conservation was significantly increased, although no significant differ- ences in increase of attitude and engagement were found. We conclude that Powersaver Game is effective in transfer of energy conservation knowledge, which leads to energy saving behaviour on the long term. It cannot be concluded that playing the game leads to a greater change in attitude, however, attitude scores of the participants were high from the start.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGames and Learning Alliance
Subtitle of host publication7th International Conference, GALA 2018, Palermo, Italy, December 5–7, 2018, Proceedings
EditorsManuel Gentile, Mario Allegra, Heinrich Söbke
Place of PublicationSwitzerland
PublisherSpringer
Chapter24
Pages257-266
Number of pages10
Volume11385
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-11548-7
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-11547-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Event7th International Conference, GALA (Games and Learning Alliance) 2018, Palermo, Italy, December 5–7, 2018 - Palermo, Italy
Duration: 5 Dec 20187 Dec 2018
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030115470#

Conference

Conference7th International Conference, GALA (Games and Learning Alliance) 2018, Palermo, Italy, December 5–7, 2018
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityPalermo
Period5/12/187/12/18
Internet address

Keywords

  • gamification
  • energy conservation
  • persuasive games
  • behaviour change

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Enhancing Energy Conservation by a Household Energy Game'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this