Dehems

The Digital Environment Home Energy Management System DEHEMS, a EU FP7 funded project investigated how technology could improve domestic energy efficiency; the aim being to improve the current monitoring approach to levels of energy being used by households, with an overall aim of reducing CO2 emissions across Europe.

The project partnership included a mix of European local authorities, private business and universities.

The project was the first initiative to come out of the UK Greenshift Government Taskforce which brings together public, private and voluntary sector organisations in a common programme to maximise the effectiveness of IT in achieving 2020 emissions targets.

The Partnership

  • Manchester City Council [United Kingdom]
  • Technical University of Cluj-Napoca [Romania]
  • Clicks and Links Ltd [United Kingdom]
  • Hildebrand Technology Ltd [United Kingdom]
  • Bristol City Council [United Kingdom]
  • Plovdiv Municipality [Bulgaria]
  • Ivanovo Municipality [Bulgaria]
  • Institute e-Austria Timisoara [Romania]
  • University of Rousse [Bulgaria]
  • Birmingham City Council [United Kingdom]
  • University of Coventry [United Kingdom]
  • University of Salford [United Kingdom]

Led by Manchester City Council, DEHEMS implemented next generation smart metering for households via a three-cycle development and implementation programme, designed for helping households cut energy bills via a revolutionary new online energy dashboard. This enabled users to view their home energy consumption in real-time, alongside a community average, using an energy monitor taking readings every 6 seconds.

  • Real-time projections for the total extra/saving for the next bill, compared to the last bill
  • Real-time energy usage for the household, compared to the neighbourhood average, measured in kWh
  • The pattern of energy usage over the day for the household, compared to the neighbourhood average, measured in cost, CO2 and Kwh

This provided a unique insight into how exactly the energy was being used. By enabling changes to usage profiles to be made remotely, users were via the dashboard able to change settings on all of their emission relevant services and appliances through an online control panel. Profiles were tailored by users to meet the needs of their individual situation, and services made accessible via multiple devices with broadband connections (e.g. internet enabled TV, as well as PC and mobile phone) and updated in real-time.

Clicks and Links were pleased to be a partner in this programme where we led on the Dissemination and Evaluation Work Package, as well as providing coordination of the project's RTD activity. This experience in energy monitoring has led to Clicks and Links developing their product offering Greenica.

In addition DEHEMS included a pilot model for emissions trading at the household and neighbourhood level. This model was based on the workings of the Carbon Reduction Commitment and was discussed with the CRC implementation team chaired by Clicks and Links, and then developed / implemented across the 5 DEHEMS Living Lab households in the UK and Bulgaria.

To find out more about DEHEMS, a Project Report for Citizens was produced, and can be downloaded from Project Report for Citizens.

at www.dehems.eu and www.greenshift.org.uk or contact Richard Bush.

Save Your Energy

This online smart metering system for monitoring electricity and a limited number of gas users, was developed and successfully implemented in a total of 250 households (ie. 50 each in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester in UK, plus Plovdiv and Ivanovo in Bulgaria).

For further information, please email richard.bush@clicksandlinks.com

 

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