Results
One of the great societal challenges is the move to more sustainable patterns of energy consumption, reflecting the need to balance both individual consumer choice and societal demands. In order for this ‘energy turnaround’ to take place, however, reducing residential energy consumption must go beyond using energy-efficient devices: More sustainable behaviour and lifestyles are essential parts of future ‘energy aware’ living and working. Our projects UUIS and its successsor ASUP delivers tools and approaches for analysing energy data with intelligent algorithms and smart interfaces for active support of consumption transparency. The aim is to support a sustainable, sensible use of energy and highlight potentials of concrete analyses of consumption data.
Ubiquitous Environmental Information Systems
The project UUIS as well as its successor ASUP are collaborative projects co-funded by the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The project explores and develops environmental information systems for measuring energy consumption in different contexts such as smart homes and workplaces. In this context, FIT is focusing on developing smart energy dashboard applications that visualize energy data of production processes and stimulate exploration and process optimizations.
Research Approach
In UUIS/ASUP, innovation is facilitated through a living lab approach where users test prototypes in as close-to-real conditions as possible for prolonged periods of time. This allows us to gain an in-depth understanding of energy related practices in a variety of environments, including private households as well as producing companies. Results of this research is brought into practice in our Center for Green Process Management.
Research Activities
In order to facilitate responsible energy consumption, it is necessary to study energy related practices. How people understand and use energy in their daily lifes and at work, as well as how they organize and interpret their energy consumption, requires careful analysis and real-world observations. UUIS/ASUP build a basis for understanding energy related behavior in a wide array of contexts, using prototypes of energy monitoring systems to help user reflecting their practices and uncover potentials for reducing energy footprints in homes and workplaces. In doing so, we understand interactive feedback systems as a resource for making energy consumption visible, explorable, and accountable.
