CharIoT: Leveraging the Internet of Things to Reduce Fuel Poverty

物联网已经开始走出实验室，通过互联网设备和产品进入世界，使捕捉和分享我们的身体活动、体重、能量消耗和运动习惯成为可能。套用威廉·吉布森（William Gibson）的话来说，物联网已经出现了，只是分布不是很均匀，它主要存在于那些有足够可支配收入购买新数码产品的家庭中。这个“野外”项目关注的是物联网（IoT）如何避免强调支持少数数字特权家庭的技术，而考虑它如何有益于社会的所有元素。我们特别感兴趣的是让处于数字社会边缘的用户参与进来，即那些通常被技术发展抛在后面的低收入弱势家庭。为了实现这一广泛目标，我们将与目前处于燃料贫困状态的低收入家庭合作，这些家庭面临着不断上涨的能源成本，而他们感到无力减轻这种成本。燃料匮乏是英国一个重要的社会问题，2011年有450万受影响的家庭受到相关的经济、身体和情感影响。除了财政支持和福利外，帮助燃料贫困人口的一个关键资源是能源咨询，鼓励明智地使用能源，同时保持人们的温暖和健康。这通常是由慈善机构通过电话、社区中心和家访提供的。可持续能源中心（CSE，这个项目的“用户伙伴”）是一个全国性的慈善机构，在为燃料贫乏的人们提供能源建议方面有30多年的经验。顾问们在个别评估燃料贫乏的程度和影响时经常面临挑战。其中许多挑战来自于他们所建议的家庭能源使用信息的缺乏。简短的家访和通过电话采访收集的不完整的信息往往足以推断出与健康风险相关的财产问题的原因（例如潮湿和发霉），为受影响的人提出材料和行为改进建议，并与第三方联系，代表客户（例如房东、市政委员会和电力公司）进行调整。我们寻求通过在物联网技术上构建应用和服务来解决这些挑战，通过提供更丰富的使用情况和更多的证据来代表这些家庭推动变革，从而支持能源建议。美国能源与气候变化部（DECC）（2013）：年度燃料贫困统计。2013.2。吉布森，W.(1999): 11月3日30日美国国家公共电台“国家之谈”访谈。土拨鼠审查小组（2011）：寒冷家园和燃料贫乏对健康的影响。地球之友。伦敦大学学院流行病学与公共卫生学系。

The Internet of Things has already started to leave the lab and reach into the world with Internet enabled devices and products making it possible to capture and share our physical activities, our weight, our energy consumption, and our movement habits among many others. To paraphrase William Gibson, the Internet of Things is already here, it's just not very evenly distributed [2], it predominantly resides in the homes of those with sufficient disposable income to purchase new digital gadgets. This "in the wild" project focuses on how the Internet of Things (IoT) might avoid an emphasis on technologies that support a few digitally privileged households to consider how it may be beneficial to all elements of society. We are particularly interested in involving users at the edges of digital society, the low-income vulnerable households that are typically left behind by technological development. To achieve this broad aim we will work with low-income households currently in fuel poverty who are subject to ever increasing energy costs that they feel powerless to mitigate. Fuel poverty is a key societal concern in the UK, with 4.5 millions of affected households in 2011 [1] exposed to associated financial, physical and emotional effects [3]. In addition to financial support and benefits, a key resource to help people in fuel poverty is energy advice to encourage wise energy use while keeping people warm and healthy. This is often provided by charities over the phone, in community centres and through home visits. The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE, the "user partner" in this project) is a national charity with over 30 years of experience in providing energy advice to people in fuel poverty. The advisors frequently face challenges involved in assessing the extent and effects of fuel poverty on a case-by-case basis. Many of these challenges arise from a paucity of information about energy use in the households they advise. Brief home visits and incomplete information gleaned through phone interviews often have to suffice to infer the causes of problems of properties often associated with health risks (e.g.damp and mold), to recommend both material and behavioural improvements to the affected, and to liaise with third parties to make the case for adjustments on their client's behalf (e.g. landlords, councils, and power companies). We seek to address these challenges by building applications and services on IoT technologies in support of energy advice by providing a richer picture of use and more evidence to drive change on behalf of these households.1. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) (2013): Annual Fuel Poverty Statistics. 2013.2. Gibson, W. (1999): Interview on NPR's ''Talk of the Nation,'' 30 November 3. Marmot Review Team (2011): The health impacts of cold homes and fuel poverty. Friends of the Earth. Department of Epidemology & Public Health, UCL.