Activity Based Home Energy A Potential Game Changer
Energy for Good is undertaking a project that has the potential to change the way in which families set and respond to home energy budgets. Whilst the project objective is to assist families managing on tight budgets, there may be broader applications.
The title we have given the projects is HABITS, short for Home Activity Based Information Technology System. The objective of the project is to help families on tight budgets develop Good Habits when managing home activities within tight financial budgets.
The successful delivery of the HABITS project will lead to a step change in the assistance that can be provided to families experiencing hardship.
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The successful delivery of the HABITS project will lead to a step change in the assistance that can be provided to families experiencing hardship. 〰️
Through the creation of meaningful home energy budgets, families will learn how they can work within their financial resources and, where needed, obtain additional support. Because it is presented as activity based, home energy use will became readily visible and usable to families.
Living within a budget normally requires some adaptation in lifestyle. The information available will enable families to decide what adaptation options they have, and the best actions to take. When a family takes positive actions, the benefits realised will be clearly visible. This will reinforce the continuation of positive behaviour – leading to GOOD HABITS.
Importantly, the information provided will identify actions that families can take to support a healthy home environment.
Our Collaborators will make it happen
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Our Collaborators will make it happen 〰️
Energy for Good operates a collaborative platform through which energy experts and other specialists can apply their experience and knowledge to improve the lives of people, communities and the environment.
The concept of a low cost, activity based home energy information platform was developed through collaboration with the Community Energy Network (CEN) and its members. The HABITS project was established to develop and deliver a solution. Additional collaborators are supporting and working on areas of the project which align with their experience and expertise.
HABITS will be an affordable tool that provides households with information on energy costs in a usable, family friendly format.
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HABITS will be an affordable tool that provides households with information on energy costs in a usable, family friendly format. 〰️
The primary objective of HABITS is to give people uncomplicated information on their energy lifestyle choices (washer loads, room temperature settings etc.); information that is easy to grasp and understand rather than standard energy metrics terminology (i.e., cents/kWh, kWh per month etc.). Energy budget setting, tracking and response options will be based on home activities rather than units of energy or dollars.
A critical outcome is the establishment of an improved method to assist households in making permanent, financially beneficial changes to their lifestyles. To gain the maximum benefit from the monitoring platform, the outputs will need to support and reinforce the work of Home Energy Advisors.
HABITS project has three primary work streams
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HABITS project has three primary work streams 〰️
The monitoring technology – will identify and evaluate existing and potential technology that will provide reliable (e.g., good connectivity) data streams. The technology will develop home energy monitoring components that have low capital and operating costs (including data use costs), recording total energy and other parameters that can be used to determine home appliance energy signatures.
The data captured will need to be sufficiently granular to enable individual appliance profiles to be determined, yet not become too data hungry.
A ‘proof of concept’ pilot project was initially proposed to develop confidence in the concept that total home energy data could be used to identify and isolate individual appliance signatures. However, our review of monitoring technologies and systems currently available found working examples of this approach, but at a cost that is not practical for this application. Because of this, the focus of the technology workstream has progressed to identification of a low cost monitoring option that will deliver the data affordably to homes facing hardship.
Data conversion into user centric information – developing analytical methods to convert data into information that allows individuals, families, and communities to apply it seamlessly to everyday life. Conceptually, the outputs will be appliance related budget blocks that can be used to visualise how energy is used in the home.
Combined, and individual appliance budget blocks can be compared with efficient appliance and home profiles to indicate areas where behavioural change has helped a family to achieve its budget goals.
It is probable that the data conversion system will be developed over time through user experience, collection, and analysis of appliance signatures and improvements in the monitoring technology.
This workstream is in its early stages of obtaining sources of data that can be used to develop the concept and methods through which data can be transformed into usable information. There are examples of home energy monitoring system interfaces which can be drawn from; however, our current view is that an interface, producing information that is usable by families facing hardship, has yet to be developed.
We will need collaborators with a range of skills to complete this workstream. CEN members and the Home Performance Advisor resources will provide essential guidance on the applicability of the interface with their client families and communities. In addition, we will need innovative data specialists who can transform complex data/analysis into a relatively basic, user friendly platform.
We intend to support development of the data conversion platform through field trials that provide user engagement and feedback.
·Enabling behavioural change – supporting greater understanding of how households can accept and apply a budget, and manage energy. The primary objective is to support Home Energy Advisors to assist people in hardship to better manage their energy usage. It will do this by providing clear connections between the changes that households can make, and the benefits they obtain from making the changes.
Supporting positive behavioural change is a complex and difficult area. For this project to be a success, the information provided and assistance given must be acceptable to and usable by families and communities. This workstream will provide guidance on the formation of outputs from the monitoring and data conversion workstreams to ensure that the information presented is relevant and usable.
We are currently seeking collaborators that have speciality knowledge and experience in applied behavioural change relevant to home energy use in New Zealand’s multicultural communities.
