EnerGAware

The EnerGAware project developed and tested, in 100 affordable homes, a serious game that was linked to the actual energy consumption (smart meter data) of the game user’s home and embedded in social media and networking tools.

The EnerGAware solution provided an innovative IT ecosystem in which users could play to learn about the potential energy savings from installing energy-efficiency measures and changing user behaviour. The user needed to learn to balance the energy consumption, comfort and financial cost of their actions. Energy savings achieved both virtually in the game, calculated by building performance simulation, and in reality, in the users’ actual homes, measured through smart meter data, enabled progression in the serious game. The social media features provided users with a platform to share data of their achievements, compete with each other, give energy advice, as well as join together to form virtual energy communities.

The EnerGAware project aimed to go beyond just testing in an affordable housing pilot but seeking commercial exploitation of the solution at the end of the project, through our industrial partners, in particular EDF Energy, a global energy provider, with 38 million European energy customers.