BeAware

Recruitment of test households

basen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:10:46 +0000

We are looking for families in the area of Helsinki (Finland) or Catania (Italy) willing to participate in trials of the BeAware project, a European research project concerned with the monitoring of household energy consumption. Energy consumption data will be gathered, processed and displayed using appropriate devices that will be supplied to the participants for the duration of the trial.

Data on the energy consumption of their own homes and individual devices will be accessible via web pages or third-generation mobile only to the participants and in protected mode. If you wish to participate or find out more visit the web site: http://www.energyawareness.eu/beaware/recruitment-of-test-households/

There is no financial remuneration provided for participating families.

BeAware Present at ICT4EE

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:45:48 +0000

BeAware will be present at the high level event ICT4EE in Brussels February 23-24. The Commission has recognized that ICTs and ICT-based innovations may provide one of the potentially most cost-effective means to achieve the 2020 targets. For that reason they aim at creating a policy framework that will allow the energy-saving potential of ICTs to be widely recognized and exploited and this will be discussed at this event. The project team of BeAware will show their first working prototype called Energy Life. The visitors in BeAware’s booth can also answer an on-line survey and be able to win an iPod touch, including the prototype Energy Life.

On-line Survey at BeAware’s web site

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:12:52 +0000

The project team has released an on-line survey and challenge you to answer the survey for actively contributing to the project’s research.
Kanske en direktlänk till on-line survey.

Plenary Meeting in Brussels February 22-23

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:10:05 +0000

The BeAware partners meet in Brussels for fine tuning the first user test of the prototype Energy Life. The prototype will be tested in four Italian and four Finnish households, starting in March.

Publication of scientific paper about EnergyLife usability

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:45:51 +0000

This paper illustrates the approach of Energy Life, a pervasive household sensoring and feedbacking system aimed at improving the energy conservation practices of the inhabitants. The concept of EnergyLife takes into account state-of-the-art knowledge of what makes a feedback intervention effective, which – at this stage of its development – can be synthesized into two main features. First, knowledge and action are to be synergically addressed by visualizing electricity consumption on the one side, and providing conservation tips on the other. Second, the design should be centered on the users and undergo iterative usability tests. A more detailed description of the literature-based requirements informing the design of EnergyLife is offered at the beginning of the paper. The way in which they are embodied in the features of the mobile interface, epitomized by its intuitive 3D carousel, is then described. Finally, the rationale and results of the first usability evaluation are reported, describing the responses to a satisfaction questionnaire and the types of breakdowns that occurred during the users’ interaction with the device. These results will guide the next development phase and the release of a new prototype.

BeAware at Euronews

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:10:55 +0000

BeAware has been interviewed by Euronews. In the video, conservation potential in the residential sector is discussed together with the BeAware approach to understand and engage consumers in energy saving.

From Euronews website:

The results were quite a surprise. Luciano Gamberini:
“The statistics are completely different from those revealed by the questionnaire. Some of the behaviour about sustainability, like leaving lights switched on at home, wasn’t credible. Almost 50 per cent of people lied in these questionnaires.”

To be widely accepted by users the Energy Life system has to be easy to learn, effective and engaging.

Engineer Massimo Bertoncini is advising the project on how to take the software to market. To do that, he says, you need to follow one straightforward rule:
“We believe that the consumer wants to have just a small amount of information shown in a very clear way”.

[...]

After six months testing the system, Topi sees the constant flow of information as the main benefit for his family.
“It shows where the energy goes, so of course that makes you think ‘is this really needed?’
“You get the feedback immediately instead of waiting for the energy company to send you the bill half a year later.”

The video will be aired 6:45 AM on Saturday 20th Feb

BeAware at ICT for Sustainable Homes

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:26:56 +0000

Giulio Jacucci, coordinator of BeAware, presented the BeAware project at the conference ICT for Sustainable Homes, November 16-17, in Nice.

The conference is a research and industry forum on how ICT can be used in buildings to reduce the energy consumption. Many projects, both research and industry initiatives, presented their solutions on this issue. One conclusion from the conference is that to be able to reach the necessary climate goals that EU has put up a transformation is critical. We already have the needed technology for this process but the market itself is not able to do this change. For that reason we need booth regulations and standards to make it happen.

ICT4EE Project Award

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:39:41 +0000

BeAware is one of the candidates in the Best ICT4EE Project Award.

Give us a vote if you like BeAware!

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/cf/ee09/item-display.cfm?login=true&id=2607

Delivering Energy Savings through Smart Metering

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:44:45 +0000

Luciano Gamberini and Anna Spagnolli have been invited to participate to the Delivering Energy Savings through Smart Metering workshop, to be held in Oxford (UK) next 26-27 October 2009.

BeAware at SenterNovem

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:29:26 +0000

BeAware is attending SenterNovem, the first European conference on energy efficiancy and behaviour, in Maastricht October 18-20, 2009.