ENERGISE Living Labs Research Project Q&A
- What is the ENERGISE Living Labs project?
ENERGISE is a research project which aims to help people to change the ways they use energy at home. The project will focus on two areas: the way you heat your home and how you do the laundry. The researchers will work with individual households to help them to reduce the amount of energy they use, and also explore the reasons why people heat their home and do the laundry in the ways that they do. The findings, along with the findings from all the other Living Labs, being carried out in eight countries, will be put together to influence policy and practice across Europe.
- Who can get involved?
The project is open to anyone who lives in Hastings and St Leonards. We are looking for a range of different people, household types and different houses. It doesn’t matter whether you own or rent your house/flat from a private or social landlord. If you have any special requirements that you need in order to get involved in the project, then let us know and we will do our best to make sure we meet them.
- Why should I get involved?
Signing up to the project is a great way to get the motivation and support to try new ways to reduce your energy use. The aim is for your energy costs and carbon footprint to come down and hopefully you might find some useful ideas that you stick with after the project has ended. All participants will be supported by the researchers at Kingston University and staff at Energise Sussex Coast.
As a thank you for getting involved participants will receive a fortnightly fruit and veg box for the duration of the 8 week project. You will also keep the energy monitoring equipment that is installed.
- What will I have to do?
Once you have completed the recruitment survey and been accepted onto the project, the ENERGISE team will collect some baseline data about your current energy use. This will take place in the second half of August and will involve a conversation and a look at your bills. The ENERGISE team will visit your home and install thermometers and an energy monitor. This will be a simple device that clips over your meter. It will collect information on how much energy you use and you will get to keep the energy monitor after the project ends.
The main Living Lab activities start at the end of September- beginning of October; you will meet with the ENERGISE team and together decide on some energy saving actions. Over the 8 weeks you will try and implement the energy saving actions and take notes in a diary about your experiences. Throughout this period the ENERGISE team will keep in touch with you. At the end of the 8 weeks you will meet up with the team again and share your experiences, they will collect your diary and the information from your energy monitor. In February-March 2019 the researchers will give you a call to find out whether there have been any long term changes in energy use as a result of the project.
- What is the time commitment?
The ENERGISE team will come and visit you in your home 3 times. The visits will last around an hour.
During the 8 week project, you will keep a regular diary of your actions to be filled in once a week. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to fill in. You will also have a short phone call with the ENERGISE team during the project to see how you’re doing. There will be a follow-up phone call in February or March 2019, which will take around 30 minutes.
- What is a “Living lab”?
This is the term for a research project about real people in their real situation, in this case, your home! In this Living Lab the participants work with the ENERGISE team to come up with ideas for energy saving actions to take. The participants try out the ideas over 8 weeks, keeping a record of what they do, and the researchers collect this information and evaluate it.
- How will I know what to do?
You will work with the ENERGISE team to come up with your energy saving actions so you can make sure you go ahead with the ideas that work for you.
- What will the interviews be like?
You will be visited by a friendly team of two people from Kingston University and Energise Sussex Coast. You will need to have your energy bills handy for the first interview. After that you will need your laundry and indoor temperature diary (a template will be provided). In your diary you will be asked to provide temperature readings (if possible once a week on the same day), and information about the use of a washing machine and how you dry the laundry, followed by several tick-box questions.
- What information is collected?
In the recruitment survey we will ask questions about your house, how you heat your home, whether you have a washing machine, some demographic questions and your contact details. This information is needed in order to select participants.
During the first visit we will ask you about your heating and laundry in more detail, e.g. how you regulate temperature in your home, how you do laundry (temperature, cycles per week, frequency), whether you use a dryer etc., and have a look at your energy bills.
At the start of the 8 week energy saving period (second visit) we will discuss with you the ways to reduce energy use in your home that would work for you/your household.
At the end of the active phase we will visit you one more time to discuss the results and collect the diaries and metering data.
- What happens after the project?
After the project ends, Energise Sussex Coast will let you know about the opportunities locally around energy saving. You will be able to stay in the loop with local information and opportunities for getting involved by joining the Energise Sussex Coast mailing list.
- Who is running ENERGISE Living Labs?
ENERGISE is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Innovation Programme. There are 16 Living Labs taking place in 8 countries across the EU.
Kingston University is leading the research project in the UK. Energise Sussex Coast is the local partner for Hastings & St Leonards. Energise Sussex Coast is a local not for profit energy co-operative.
If you sign up to the project you will be working with a small, friendly team of people from Kingston University and Energise Sussex Coast.
- How is my data kept safe?
The ENERGISE team will ensure that your data is kept secure and confidential. Only anonymised data will be shared with consortium partners, and only Kingston University will retain your name and contact details. You can of course request your data to be deleted at any time.
- How much energy/ money will I save?
We expect that you will save energy and some money off your bills, but as the energy actions are decided together at the start of the project, we don’t know yet exactly how much that will be.
- How do I apply?
Simply complete the online survey sent to you by Marfuga from Kingston University. Kingston team will look at the survey results and select the participants with the aim of getting a representative sample of the UK population. We will let you know by email when we have the final list of participants.
We hope that you find this information useful. Should you have any questions please email Marfuga Iskandarova at: m.iskandarova@kingston.ac.uk or Kate Meakin at: kate@energisesussexcoast.co.uk