Data-Driven Innovation to reduce water consumption at home

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Water infrastructure is overlooked when talking about 'smart use' as water is considered as an invisible utility. Information communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are boosting in the energy sector for example. It is acknowledged that existing technologies such as sensors connected to smart meters and in-home displays used to give real-time feedback to users, are widely use in 'smart homes' to reduce energy consumption. These technologies could be also implemented to reduce water consumption. To close this gap, it is important to bring together consumer insights (physical data) with real time data (digital data) as an integrated system that could provide real-time feedback to Anglian Water and their clients about actual consumption patterns in the home. As such, there is a greater potential for the data-driven economy to provide transformational changes to the water utility sector, by investigating opportunities of using existing technologies to reduce water consumption by influencing consumer behaviour whereas at the same time source meaningful data that could inform the co-development of an integrated feedback system that could enhance water saving potentials at home whilst at the same time mitigating possible rebound effects. The aim of this project is to analyse and classify different sets of digital and physical data mined from Anglian Water users to develop a proof of concept of a 'data-driven' in-home modular hardware and software integrated system to provide real-time feedback about actual water consumption patterns in the home.