Learning Energy Systems : A dynamic innovative solution to reducing energy demand

Summary

Beyond our homes, schools are the buildings that all society, primarily young people, engages with. The potential for embedding principles of low energy behaviour through the use of school buildings is present across all school aged children, but they are rarely involved in decisions on how energy is used. Pupils, teachers, janitors and building managers will participate in this "research in the wild" in order to understand how and why energy is used in their school building, learn how to control and manage it, and ultimately take responsibility for reducing energy use.

This project will develop a collective 'Learning Energy System' involving people, objects, data and machines. Central to this is a digital system designed to align human needs and comfort with building energy systems, with the aim of to reducing overall energy demand. This project differs from many energy reduction projects. The building user; as a sensor of conditions; as a driver of energy demand; as an individual; and as a collective, is at the heart of the 'Learning Energy System'. Dynamic interactions between people and technology will be set up using innovative mobile applications.

The research team will work with a Facilities Management company responsible for 32 schools across Scotland. Digital data representing energy use is available and will be used to develop a system to enable building users to more effectively manage and control how energy is used in their school buildings. The concept of a 'Living Lab' will be used which involved the user community in the co-creation of a solution to an identified problem. The facilities manager has already worked closely with the schools to reduce energy, but they have identified a need to develop a system to sustain energy reductions and involve builder users more actively in the energy management strategy. This will emerge as the 'Learning Energy System', a web based approach designed to be adaptive, interactive and easy to use.

Pupils, teachers and janitors will work together using a range of low cost technology to co-create scenarios that connect with existing Building Management Systems, sensors and control systems. Innovative representation of energy will be used to explore ideas of motivation and desire to change behaviour to how and when energy is used. Overall the aim is to reduce energy use in the schools, and recognise the importance of the building user in achieving this goal.

The 'Learning Energy System' will provide real time reductions in energy use for the schools, and a positive engagement with a wide range of building users. The whole process will offer thought provoking and compelling arguments for taking responsibility for efficient use of energy, and an exciting opportunity to use state of the art equipment to visualise, interpret, and control previously out of reach and often invisible energy streams.

The system will be made available to all schools across the UK providing potential for transforming behaviour relative to energy use in a large number of communities. Cost savings, engagement with communities and carbon reductions associated with this project offer economic, social and environmental impact.

Beneficiaries of the Research

The research will benefit the school communities where the 'Research in the Wild' will take place. Initially the project will work in six schools. The project aims to involve all building users, including pupils, teachers, and building managers from the Project Partner, FES FM Ltd., the facilities managers. Council representatives liaising with the schools from a range of departments (Eco Schools; Computing; Sustainability) will extend the reach of the project into Local Government and contribute to meeting policy requirements in carbon reduction.
The aim of the project is to work across year groups and subject areas, in order to generate an approach that is inclusive, and widens participation. Some of the schools operate as community schools, which mean that the buildings are used outside of normal school hours by members of the public. Groups using the school will be invited to participate in the Living Labs providing an opportunity for routes to impact behaviour outside of the school environment.

There are 19,500 pupils registered in the schools operated by the Project Partner, and the 'Learning Energy System' created by this project will be rolled out to all 32 schools. These schools are in the council areas of East Lothian, Stirling, Falkirk, Clydebank, Moray and Fife and represent an extensive geographic coverage. The launch of a web based portal will enable the project output to be available to schools across the UK.

The Project Partner, FES FM Ltd is working with the schools through PPP Contractual arrangements. As a company they are working towards delivering better value to their clients. This involves working to annually agreed energy benchmarks. This project will help them work to and potentially exceed these targets. This has economic benefit, but also offers commercial advantage in their wider facilities management business.

How will they benefit from this research?

The schools involved will have reduced energy bills. One school has experienced savings of £85k in one year alone. The aim is sustain and increase these savings, not just in one school, but across all 32 schools. The project will introduce participants to adaptive ways of working with energy in buildings. They will understand how control of energy is related to issues of comfort and need in the context of the wider environment.

The reduction of energy use has obvious economic benefits to the public sector. The councils and the Project Partner are committed to reducing the costs associated with energy use, and this project has the potential to deliver some economic benefit within the timescales of the work programme. The project is aiming to produce a 'Learning Energy System' that will be designed to sustain energy reduction, by creating an adaptive system that integrates people, objects, data and machines. This will work by adapting to the specific characteristics of the building and the people using it.

Social benefits are sought by engaging participants through the whole life of this project. The integrative approach that will be adopted, aims to discover positive action and behaviours towards energy, which have the potential to extend beyond the scope of this project. Participants are pupils, teachers, janitors, managers, council representatives and so the social benefit is potentially cross-organisational and cross-generational, increasing the audience and the subsequent number of people affected by this project.
The longer term benefit of this project will be tangible in years to come. The potential to transform behaviour towards energy use will be realised over years and decades. This will offer economic, environmental and health benefits to individuals and wider communities, as behaviour learnt in the school environment is passed on to homes, and other buildings.