Mobile app for improving energy practices at home

Proposal

UpEnergy is a mobile app to improve energy practices at home. The proposal is committed to the use of information technology and gamification, as an effective strategy to promote learning and the generation of bonds within communities, overcoming the barriers that limit our relationship with energy.

Objectives

In view of the need to generate a cultural change that turns citizens into an energy agent of change, the main objective of the proposal is to develop an app, with the appropriate functionalities to involve people and communities in the energy vector and, consequently, in the process of ecological transition.

In line with the main objective, the specific objectives of the project are:

1. 1. 1. Energy improvement: to develop, for citizens, a self-learning and shared learning service in the app of efficient practices in the use of energy in the home based on personalization, adapted monitoring and didactic accompaniment.
    2. Community formation: to develop, in the face of citizenship, an environment that facilitates networks and creation of communities for the exchange of experiences and mutual learning, without corporate or institutional borders.
    3. Maximization of CSR: to develop, in the face of companies and public and private entities, a system of maximization of environmental policy and loyalty of workers, consumers, and/or users of their services or products, through patronage models.
    4. Knowledge of households: develop, with a view to public administration, a system for capturing enriched anonymized information on energy use and comfort in households, focused on the mitigation of energy poverty and the improvement of decarbonization policies.

Approach

The proposal is committed to the use of information technology and gamification as an effective strategy to promote learning and the generation of links, which facilitate the creation of communities that play an active role around the energy transition, allowing citizens to become energy agents of change.

In this sense, the main core of the project consists of the development and implementation of the upEnergy application that allows anyone to:

Easily and intuitively access the data of your energy consumption and its personalized interpretation, using only the everyday mobile device (smartphone, tablet, etc.), and without requiring the installation of any additional physical device (hardware) at home, and with the ability to enrich the data according to the returns of the users.
Have a didactic guide that, complemented with the data of real energy consumption and the established habits, accompanies the user in the process of learning and improvement of behavioral practices and in the potentials of actions.
Form a community of exchange of experiences and mutual learning that encourages collective play around the increase of energy culture.

Results

The solution provided is a dynamic, eloquent and attractive visualization tool of the evolution of domestic energy consumption, integrated with an accompanying didactic guide, which provides the user, regardless of their level of digital understanding, with support to improve their daily practices around energy and the explicit return of the impact of their actions, as well as a range of targeted potential actions.

This process is articulated through a simple sequence that encourages individual, but, above all, collective play. With the possibility of being shared with the neighborhood, friends and family through a common tool for all participants.

The project is coordinated by Cíclica, and also includes theIREC – Energy Research Institute of Catalonia, the Consortium of the Vall del Ges, Orís i Bisaura, Regional Council of Osona, Cospes, Estabanell Impulsa and Dies d’agost, and has the support of Lloriana Energy Community, PescaEnergía Energy Community and Energy Community of Sant Quirze de Besora.

Project developed within the framework of Programa Aracoop promogut pel Departament de Treball, Afers Socials i Famílies de la Generalitat de Catalunya i finançat pel Ministerio de Trabajo y Economía Social.