Power Ballads is a home energy monitoring application with a twist! – Instead of patting you on the back in a self-congratulatory manner and saying well done if you save energy, it gives out aversive feedback if you dont! The use of Power Ballads in our current ongoing study follows on from our alt.CHI paper from last year titled, ‘There’s a monster in my kitchen: using aversive feedback to motivate behaviour change’.

Implemented as a Facebook application, Power Ballads will post aversive feedback on your Facebook newsfeed claiming you  are listening to ‘dubious’ quality chart music in the current top 40! Could there be any greater way into shaming you into reducing your energy usage?! The implementation of the application requires the recently released Current Cost Energy Bridge, further information on the Power Ballads Facebook page may be viewed here.

You have been warned – save power, save the planet and listen to real music! For more information contact Derek Foster (defoster@lincoln.ac.uk).