Pilot study of college student laptop usage for energy efficiency

Abstract

The energy consumption of consumer electronics has skyrocketed. According to IEA (International Energy Agency), it will triple over the next two decades, reaching a level equivalent to the present total home electricity consumption of the U.S. and Japan combined. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of these devices has become critical. Our project, called ugreen, seeks to motivate power consumption awareness and behavioral change among laptop computer users via human-computer interaction (HCI) feedback mechanisms with college students as the initial target group. We have chosen college students because they are avid laptop users with 87.7% of them reporting laptop ownership [1], and user behaviors play an important role in the total laptop system power consumption [2].