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Information and communication technologies – a new round of electrification in households

Information and communication technologies – a new round of electrification in households. Inge Røpke, Technical University of Denmark Toke Haunstrup Christensen, Danish Building Research Institute, Aalborg University. Motivation: Old and new environmental impacts of everyday life.

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Information and communication technologies – a new round of electrification in households

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  1. Information and communication technologies – a new round of electrification in households Inge Røpke, Technical University of Denmark Toke Haunstrup Christensen, Danish Building Research Institute, Aalborg University

  2. Motivation: Old and new environmental impacts of everyday life • Studies tend to focus on: Which parts of consumption are most problematic in an environmental perspective here and now? • Calls for studies on food (e.g. meat), transport and housing (heating, cooling, white goods) • Fine! But: where do the new threats come from? What happens behind our backs while we are dealing with the old problems? New problems are constructed Not the least: in relation to ICT and the internet infrastructure

  3. Outline Summarize a project: The use of ICT in Danish households in an energy perspective • Data • Three observations – and what they tell about habits and routines • Implications for electricity consumption • A new round of electrification of households • Indirect energy consumption • Rounding up

  4. Project: The use of ICT in Danish households in an energy perspective • In-depth interviews 2007-8 • Focus on emerging trends: people who have long experience with ICT and competence to take up new applications • 14 main informants, 3 partners, additional telephone interviews. Adults: 25-75 years • Forms with background information: • Equipment of the household (40 types) • The use of ICT in relation to 48 activities, organized in 10 groups • Three points: • Pervasiveness • User creativity • Diversification

  5. Pervasive integration in everyday practices • ICTs support the universal activities of communication, search for information and shopping – which are integrated aspects of almost all practices in modern societies • Work and education • Teleworking, distance learning, home office, video conferences • Reproductive work • Shopping, banking, public services, health, the intelligent home, security, child care, cooking, do-it-yourself, ICT maintenance • Leisure • Social communication, entertainment, games, creativity, documentation, hobbies, gambling, sex • Civil society • Organizations, politics

  6. Mary is a coach in the local karate club, training a children’s team Communicates with the parents through email Contributes to the club’s website Finds inspiration at websites of other clubs

  7. Esben is a member of a rifle club He has a safe for keeping weapons for the club. A webcamera is installed in the room with the safe. Images are sent to Esben’s mobile in case anything moves

  8. Several informants have running computers Measuring distance and gradients of the route, and monitoring the speed and pulse of the user Mikkel uses a net-based route map to plan new routes and measure the length

  9. Merete takes lessons in line dance On YouTube she finds films with instructions

  10. Lise rides her horse every day and will soon buy one more horse Lise and her husband are renovating the stable She plans for webcameras in stable and fold and a website to access the recordings over the net Then she can monitor the horses without going out at night And she can watch them at her workplace and decide to go home early in case of bad weather

  11. Benny sings in a choir, records the concerts of the choir and edits the results Sometimes he burns a CD and discusses the music with others Brian (retired) is responsible for the website of his choir Merete’s choir has a Facebook group where the music is available She also uses YouTube to search for the songs

  12. Helle is interested in genealogy. Her cousin made a website where family members upload information. She uses data bases, incl. the church registers which are scanned and made available on the net

  13. Mary logs on to the internal pages of her daughter’s class almost every day to see what homework is set for the pupils

  14. John has a copy of his home in Second Life. The avatar can turn the light off and on in the real home.

  15. Diversification of well-known practices: The range of ways to keep in contact • Meeting, phone calls, letters • Mobile phone; text and picture messages • Skype / IP telephony; video-phoning • Email • Instant messaging (Messenger, Google Talk, Facebook’s instant messaging service) • Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn… • Blogs; travel blogs • Web-based photo albums • Online games

  16. Habits and routines do not seem difficult to change – in an environmentally problematic direction

  17. Implications for direct electricity consumption • At least one computer per person. Many have more • It is not practical to turn off the computer • Room and activity specific computers • Specialized equipment for many practices • Mobile equipment ever more important • Potential for energy savings: improved monitoring (increased awareness of energy consumption) and intelligent management. Still only a minor modification of the general picture

  18. A new round of the electrification of households • Ligthing • Power and heating • Broadcasting • Data-processing (monitoring, management) • Combined with at new infrastructure: interactive network

  19. Electricity consumption 1946-2006 The distribution of household electricity consumption among final uses 1946-2006

  20. Implications for indirect energy consumption • Production and disposal of equipment • Particularly important for devices with a short lifetime • Running of the ICT-related infrastructure • E.g. increased data transmission and bandwidth add to energy consumption • Based on literature survey: • When 1 kWh is consumed in the residence, • 1 kWh is consumed to manufacture, transport and dispose of the hardware • ½ kWh is consumed to run the internet and the ICT infrastructure outside the residence • Derived energy impacts • Complexity, unresolved • In case they are positive: do not necessarily justify the negative impacts

  21. ”The broadband society” involves quite radical transformations • Potential for transforming most everyday practices • Dramatic implications for energy use • Comparable to the establishment of the car society – or even more radical? • Two dominant social agendas develop in relative isolation • Preventing climate change (and other environmental problems) • Promoting ”the broadband society” (sometimes associated the concept of ”dematerialization”) • Can the agendas meet?

  22. Thank you for your attention!

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