In the second of our series of profiles, we introduce Rosie, one of the social scientists on the team.

Name: Rosie Day

Specialist area: 

Domestic energy demand; fuel poverty; public perspectives on environment and energy issues; research using interviews

Where do you work? 

The School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham

What is your role within Smarter Households?

I am a social scientist which means I’m interested in social issues, people, and their experiences and what they think. I’m also interested in making sure that energy policies and new energy technologies are well designed so that they benefit as many people as possible. My role in the project is to bring that perspective to the design of the project. I also help to design the interviews and the energy challenges for households and will be very interested to see what householders tell us throughout the trial. I work closely with Georgina.

What excites you most about the project?

It has been really great to learn more about sensor systems and what they can do, and to be involved in the development of the Energy Dashboard that should help people to understand their consumption alongside the conditions in their home. I’m most excited to see how it works out in practice and what people’s thoughts are on it all when their trial it out in their homes. We hope to design something useful in the end, but we are really happy to hear people’s views and experiences whatever they are. Everyone is different and everyone’s experiences are interesting to us!

We hope that some of the Energy Challenges help you to use the Energy Dashboard app in different ways, find new features, and explore the data being collected, in order to make it useful to you.

Other challenges will help us to improve the apps we develop, or better understand the wider patterns and differences across our 20 participating households,

January’s challenge, about your indoor environment, is coming to a close. Thank you to all who have taken part!

Future challenges will include a short diary activity, and a questionnaire to gather your household’s thoughts on our energy game.

There will be 4 challenges in total. Each challenge is worth a £5 voucher, except the game questionnaire which earns you £10. If you complete ALL the challenges, you will also receive a £5 bonus. So in total you could earn up to £30 in vouchers for completing all four activities.

During the coming months you will be able to start using Version 2 of the Energy Dashboard, and you can see a sneak peek here!

We will also be releasing a first version of our energy game, which we would really like you and anyone else in your household to have a go at. We are particularly interested in hearing the opinions of older children and teenagers!

We will be continuing with our Energy Challenges along the way as well, so it will be a busy time indeed.

Thank you for your time and your enthusiasm during the first set of interviews, which took place in December and January- Georgina enjoyed speaking to you all. Your feedback on the Energy Dashboard app has already been passed on to the developers so that we can make sure as much of it as possible is taken on board during the development of the next version.

More in-depth work is now taking place using the transcribed interviews, to better understand the role of energy in everyday life and any ways in which technology can play a useful role.

We are also busy putting the finishing touches to Version 2 of the Energy Dashboard, which you will be able to use soon, We will send over full instructions as soon as it is ready!