The Whenergy project focuses on producing a proof of concept to demonstrate the possibility to reduce non-renewable energy consumption by working on the interaction between humans and smart appliances. The main stakeholders are the NecstLab from Politecnico di Milano and the eNovia company.
The project is driven by the increasing interest of consumers to know more about their energy consumption and follow a more eco-friendly life. The other key drivers of innovation are the development of energetic communities and the increasing diffusion of smart devices in consumer’s homes. The work conducted led to Whenergy, a domestic recommendation system to coach and support the residents of a house to improve their energy consumption habits. The system is composed of a central hub to install in one’s house and a mobile app, through which the user can monitor consumption and receive suggestions. Whenergy observes the users behaviour when using appliances and consuming energy, recording the energy usage during the day. Then, it suggests small time changes in their routine of use of home-devices, matching moments in which the user is at home and available to do the task, to the objective of consuming energy when it is “greener”, namely largely produced by renewable energy. And the more Whenergy is used, the better it knows its owner’s needs and ways. The user experience is based on personal or community goals that can be achieved over time by rescheduling their activities according to Whenergy prompts.
Eco-conscious trends, evolution in the energy market and actions from “early bird” entities in the field indicate evolution of the experience of energy consumption following this path. Whenergy tries to respond to new potential market needs emerging from these weak signals, in a positioning that still has very little competition but a growing interest from the public.
Principal Academic Tutor:
Marco Santambrogio (Politecnico di Milano)
Academic Tutor:
Andrea Damiani (Politecnico di Milano)
External Tutor:
Ivo Boniolo, eNovia
Francesco Moro, eNovia