Influencing Participant Behavior Through a Notification-Based Recommendation System.

Behavioral recommendations for achieving energy savings in the home are extremely common, however how to effectively influence users to adopt such recommendations is not well understood. In this work, we present the results of a feasibility study, conducted over a 4-week period, that deployed a phone-based recommendation system designed to encourage participants to follow the popular utility-company recommendation: Consider dimmer switches to adjust the light to the lowest level necessary for an activity. We found that the system did influence participants to follow the recommendation and some even realized that they preferred dimmer lighting, suggesting that recommendation systems can serve to demonstrate to participants that they can maintain comfort even with lower energy consumption levels.