A significant amount of academic effort is devoted towards sustainable and energy efficient homes. However, the relevance of users' role does not seem to be equally reflected in academic research production. This article presents a strategy developed by the Brazilian team for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 to promote more sustainable users' habits and choices. The team has designed the Eko House as a temporary home and an educational device with the support of a home automation and information system (HAIS). The HAIS integrates house performance information with weather data and is a critical tool for users' awareness providing meaningful information about the systems' connection. The pedagogic project is analyzed through models of decision making and residential energy use structured by Wilson and Dowlatabadi. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.