Observatory

The EDOL observatory is part of the larger SERL observatory, which consists of 13,000 households who share their smart meter data for research purposes.

We develop and equip 2,000 of these homes with additional sensors and instruments to better explain the variations in energy use between households and over time. The observatory is intended to be:

• Un-intrusive: Participants should barely be aware that they are part of a study, such that they can go about their normal life and provide us with representative data, which can be used as a control group for other (more intrusive) interventions in EDOL laboratories.
• Low-cost: To deliver value for money, all equipment used in the observatory has been carefully tested and selected to meet EDOL quality criteria
• Scalable: The initial aim of 2,000 can be expanded at little extra cost for better statistical power and to allow for more detailed analysis of sub-groups
• Longitudinal: The lasting benefit of EDOL data is in its persistence. Trends in energy-use can be slow to emerge and only an ongoing observation can reliably assess where expected changes in demand are achieved and sustained.