Each newsletter, we’ll introduce you to a different member of the team. First up is Shuli, the project lead.

Name: Shuli Liu

Specialist area: 

Low carbon building technology, renewable energy applications for buildings, Building retrofit/energy performance, human behaviours in buildings (energy)

Where do you work? 

The School of Energy, Construction and Environment at Coventry University

How did you get the idea for Smarter Households?

I was working on a 3 year building retrofit project with Orbit Housing Group when I noticed that many people don’t know much about their home’s energy performance, or the new technologies that might have been installed in their property. There is a gap between householders and new technologies, and as the energy smart metering scheme is rolled out by the UK government, this gap has been noticed again: these schemes benefit utility suppliers rather than end users. This is the reason the Smarter Households project was developed, as it is up to end users to live a low carbon lifestyle, not utility suppliers. Customers are the core driver and also the key to achieving energy reduction targets.

What excites you most about the project?

This project will focus on end users and also the next generation through new communication technologies- Play, Learn and Save are the central messages. Our new 3D dashboard, serious game, and also the energy engagement aspects are the novel parts of the project, and we hope to bring to people a new view of energy technology: we are not just boring engineers, we can be fun as well!