Project news

 

  • Energy for Good has established a project to establish a Home Activity Based Information Technology System (HABITS) The successful delivery of the 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.

  • 1. 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.

    2. 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.

    3. 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.

  • Energy for Good is grateful to the following people who are giving time voluntarily to collaborate on realising the HABITS project objective:

    1. Al Brennan – Monkeytronics

    2. Arran Davis - Overlay

    3. Benjamin Paul – Genesis Energy

    4. Chris Lambourn – Manaaki Energy

    5. Derek Caudwell – Trust Horizon

    6. Gareth Cartwright – Community Energy Network

    7. Manfred Plagmann – BRANZ

    8. Nik Greg – Sustainability Options

    9. Ron Beatty – ‘free person’