Profile: Obi Iweka

In the next installment of our series of team profiles, we introduce the newest member: Obi.
Name: Obi Iweka
When did you join Smarter Households?
I joined the Smarter Households project in January 2017
Where did you previously study?
I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Electronics Engineering and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Federal University of Technology, Nigeria, and Swansea University, UK respectively. I am presently a doctoral student within the Centre for Low Impact Buildings at Coventry University, Coventry.
What is your specialist area?
Data Analysis and Visualization, and Human Energy Interaction
What is your role within the Smarter Households project?
My role within the Smarter Households project is to analyse and visualize the Integrated Meter and Sensor System (IMSS) data. By analysing and visualizing the data, one can observe patterns and trends which can be associated to probable daily activities and lifestyle choices of householders. This analysis will provide insight into the impact of the Energy Dashboard and Energy Game, and any changes that occurred along the way.
What excites you about the Smarter Households project?
The Smarter Households project offers a glimpse of what the future holds for the smart ecosystem. It is fascinating to observe how people coexist and respond to sensors, integrated meters and displays in the indoor environment (around them). It will be most exciting to see how numerical data captured by sensors make us more environmentally aware and tell stories about our daily living.

How much do my appliances cost to run?

It’s been great to read your responses to Challenge 3, where you’ve been using the electricity plug meter to find out how much different appliances in your home cost to use. It was certainly not the most straightforward piece of equipment to use, and some of you have said there are appliances you still want to test, or weren’t able to access.

Household Appliances

 

Therefore we’ve compiled a list of example costs per use, based on an electricity unit price of 15.41p/kWh (UK average as of March 2017).

All costs are in pence and fractions of a penny, unless a pound sign is used.

Dyson DC41 Mk2 Animal Upright Vacuum Cleaner- 700W

0.11p per hour of use

Breville 1650 W4 slice toaster
1.27p for 3 minutes

Samsung ME731K 800W Microwave
~1.44p per 5 minutes

Russell Hobbs Nevis Electric Kettle – 1.7L, 3000 W

2.89p per boil (full kettle)

LG standard size dishwasher (model D1484WF)
12.65p per cycle

Bosch 8kg washing machine (model WAQ28470GB )
14.67p per cycle

Hotpoint 2200W Iron
16.95p per 30 minutes

Morphy Richards 2600W Power Steam (steam station)
20.03p per 30 minutes

AEG 8kg tumble dryer (model T97689IH3 )
23.27p per cycle

Triton Osiris 9.5kW Electric Shower
24.4p per 10 minute shower

2kw Convector Heater

£1.23p per day’s use

Source: https://www.sust-it.net/

Why not enter your own tariff and look up the specific models of your appliances?

June and beyond….

As you know, the challenges are now complete and we are visiting each household to conduct the final interviews. It has been an insightful few months looking over the Energy Challenge responses and we’re grateful to everyone who has taken the time to participate in the project.
Challenges display
Over the summer and autumn we’re hoping to share some early findings with you, and we’ll continue monitoring for the remainder of the 18 month trial. However there won’t be any more challenges or vouchers. We’ll be back in touch at the end of the 18 months as we may be interested in continuing to monitor some houses. This will only happen with your active consent and of course you will be free to discontinue at any time.
 
Looking forward, we’re exploring ways of sharing the results with our participating households. If you have any preference, please let us know!