A new £1.9 million research project being undertaken by Loughborough University will address high-tech ways to reduce domestic energy bills.
The LEEDR (Low Effort Energy Demand Reduction) project will draw on the skills of specialists in social science, computer science, systems engineering, user interface and design technology.
Communications company O2, energy company E.ON, energy monitoring experts AlertMe and 20 volunteer households are also contributing to the initiative, which will examine energy usage patterns in the home and methods for reducing consumption.
The project will be led by Dr Richard Buswell (pictured), who commented: “The need to reduce energy consumption is one which will increasingly impact on our domestic lives. This project aims to uncover innovative, technology-based solutions to the challenge of reducing energy use.
“At the same time, we will attempt to look into the future – to predict the impact of these solutions on the way we live our lives in the coming decades.
“It will have a strong user-centred focus – that means that we will place importance on measuring people’s response to possible solutions. There is little point in proposing a new energy-saving device, for example, if, for some reason, no-one wants to use it.’’
