iDODDLE living lab households participated in a research mission called ‘Leave it to me’, trialling the automation of floor cleaning through the use of a smart robotic vacuum cleaner. The research investigated different impacts of automation (e.g., energy consumption, time-use, behaviours and expectations). Researcher Emilie Vrain will be presenting the research findings at the ECEEE conference this summer and has been busy analysing data. Key findings so far show that during the trial: 1) households shifted from manual to electricity consuming methods of floor cleaning; 2) duration and frequency of floor cleaning increased; 3) but the time spent cleaning by humans reduced; 4) despite an increase in vacuuming during the trial, energy consumption did not increase above pre-trial levels due to the smart robotic vacuum cleaners energy efficiency; and 5) expectations for increased cleanliness occurred reinforcing a high usage of energy demanding floor cleaning which could lead to …
A PowerPoint summarising the data collection methods can be accessed here.