The University’s Carbon Management Fund is helping to support research at the University that may reduce the institution’s carbon emissions.
The team of researchers behind Joulo, a small device that measures changes in the temperature of homes and analyses the data to help reduce bills, have received backing from the Fund to trial the next stage of their product’s development.
The funding will allow the team to produce a batch of devices for a trial deployment around the University – in buildings 35, 37 and the Hartley Library.
Whereas just one device can be used to measure the temperature of a home, the team believe that multiple devices distributed around large buildings will identify patterns of heating and cooling, and perhaps demonstrate where businesses can reduce energy costs.
Joulo was founded by Professor Alex Rogers and Dr Reuben Wilcock. They argue that a key element to reducing energy consumption is giving people a better understanding of how that energy is consumed in homes and businesses. Joulo won the British Gas Connecting Homes startup competition in 2013.
The research started as a collaboration between the ORCHID project, based in Electronics and Computer Science, which is investigating how people and software systems can better interact, and the ‘Intelligent Agents for Home Energy Management’ project, which focuses on using autonomous software agents to improve energy efficiency within the home.
The University’s Carbon Management Fund is a £4m investment in ideas that will reduce the institution’s carbon emissions and improve the sustainability of our campuses. The Fund’s steering group are actively looking for further innovative work to invest in. You can send proposals and suggestions to sustainability@southampton.ac.uk