R&D and ED - EnergyDeck’s R&D Projects
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R&D and ED - EnergyDeck’s R&D Projects

4 MINUTES READ
Nick Mason
Author: Nick Mason October 07, 2015

A key part of the ongoing development of the EnergyDeck platform is becoming involved with R&D projects. These projects allow us to work with partner companies and organisations to extend the range of experience and expertise we can call upon when creating new functionality for all EnergyDeck users.

For our three active projects, we are working with researchers, service & hardware providers, and other software developers from around the UK and Europe.

CROHM Live

The Carbon Reduction Options for Housing Managers: Live (CROHM: Live) project is designed to develop, test and verify a new energy model for the social housing sector. The aim is to combine conventional energy survey data, with high frequency energy monitoring data, alongside detailed tenant energy usage and appliance data, enabling significantly more powerful automated analysis and scenario modelling than is currently possible.

Examples of what this would provide housing associations include the quantification of comfort factors based on monitored data combined with modelled performance; incorporation of meter readings and tenant appliance and behaviour profiles to identify and support opportunities for behaviour change, predicting the actual effect of energy efficiency measures in actual situations to provide credible advice.

The project is led by Sustainable Homes, with Parity Projects, Orsis UK, and the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford. Funding is provided by Innovate UK as part of the Future Energy Management for Buildings competition.

IoT Launchpad

This project lowers the barrier to entry into the world of IoT for non-hardware specialists. Whether a Hoxton based software developer, London's transport operator or a DIY maker, by providing a cheap-as-chips, easy to use and open sensor platform, this project takes the hard work out of hardware. Commercially innovative in acknowledging the key role of commoditised hardware, OpenTRV will be the go-to supplier of expertise and integration services, plus solve the problem of security right from the start. It is technically innovative with modular sensors and plug in communications backhaul. The research will determine the optimum combination of sensors to detect footfall around bus stops in Tech City and beyond; similarly researching indoor sensors to reduce energy use and cut carbon emissions by finding the optimum combination for detecting presence inside buildings. This project bridges the gap between the Cambridge and London tech clusters, making IoT sensors usable by just about anyone, at low cost, and is an IoT market enabler.

IoT is not just about connecting sensor data, it also requires analysis and action resulting from the collection of the data. This is the role of the partner, EnergyDeck, who will provide analysis and visualisations to interpret the data and demonstrate how it can be applied to building energy management.

This project is led by our partner OpenTRV, and is funded by Innovate UK as part of the Internet of Things Tech City UK Launchpad.

EnergyUserPlus

The EnergyUserPlus project addresses two challenges: firstly, that current energy management systems are very expensive, with traditional metering costing hundreds if not thousands of Pounds, and secondly that users are often not able to make any sense of the complex data provided by the systems. As a result, potential energy savings are not realised.

By developing smart, cost-effective solutions that measure energy consumption at device level, we can achieve both societal and environmental benefits. While today there may only be one main electricity meter in a given building, or perhaps submetering to major circuit level, the objective of this project is to install smart meter technology on all energy-consuming devices in the building, such as computers, printers, refrigerators etc.

The project initiates these activities:

  • Development of smart, cost-effective sensor platform that considerably reduces the costs of energy control systems and retrofitting.
  • Development of smart user interface to enable energy consumers to effectively make use of complex data without any technical knowledge, using a user centred design approach to UI and UX development.
  • Development of an online platform to make the EnergyUserPlus solution available internationally.

The EnergyUserPlus project is led by ReMoni, an expert in sensor and data analysis technologies, alongside the Alexandra Institute, who provide expertise on user involvement in the energy domain, interaction design, user friendliness and user experience. Both of our partners are based in Denmark, and the project is a European project funded by Eurostars.