Learnings from the research project INCAP
By the end of June, the research project INCAP has reached the end. The purpose of the project has been to study the consumers’ reactions to automatic control of home appliances and variable energy prices.
Through field studies, it is possible to map the consumers’ barriers, motives and behavior, and use this information to create more targeted and effective control measures and indicatives.
The research project enables the partners of the project to acquire usable knowledge about the consumers, which can be used to further develop intelligent energy management.
DTU, Syd Energi, Stanford University, the University of Copenhagen, and Develco Products took part in the research project. For this research project, Develco Products has developed and implemented the smart control of fridges, assessed the impact of the actual user behavior, and estimated the real potential of smart control of large numbers of small-scale appliances in households.
Studying the fridge
The field study included more than a 1000 customers, whom all were randomly selected Syd Energi customers. The customers received a package with a power switch unit, temperature sensor unit, user interface unit, and communication unit. The power switch unit was installed at the power supply of the customer’s fridge, while the temperate sensor, user interface unit, and communication unit had to be installed in the same room as the fridge.
This allowed DTU to control the individual fridges and to regulate the power and collect information about the consumer’s behavior and thereby the power pattern of the fridge. Automatic control of home appliances could be a way to reduce energy consumption in the future, and INCAP has given create insights into the customers’ approach to intelligent energy management, which is very useful for utilities, governments, and IoT business’.
