Motivation fades after renovation
Vulnerable target groups often live in poorly or moderately insulated homes. Tenants depend on their landlords for sustainability upgrades. Even after renovations have been carried out, emissions often turn out to be higher than expected, partly due to the residents' living habits. After a renovation, residents are often less motivated to save energy, causing consumption to rise. In short: combatting energy poverty and achieving CO₂ reduction requires more than just renovation, policy, or technology.
Permanently changing living habits
MAI-HOME aims to better understand and gain more traction on the living habits of vulnerable people, with the goal of fighting energy poverty and reducing CO₂ emissions. The project will install a set of sensors in pilot homes of housing corporations in the Netherlands and Belgium. On the one hand, this is done to gain insight into living habits. A self-learning algorithm will then advise residents on how they can lower their energy bills by adjusting their behavior. Through gamification and social learning, among other methods, residents will be encouraged to adapt their behavior. Privacy, cybersecurity, and sustainability (long-term viability) are continuous points of attention.
Making the housing stock more sustainable
By the end of the project, there will be clear insights into how in-home technology can support residents in their living habits. But it does not stop there. Housing corporations will also learn from the project. They will discover which combination of housing investments and digital technology leads to an acceleration in tackling energy poverty and making their housing stock more sustainable. They will know which interventions are promising to use in conversations with residents to make them more aware of their living habits.
Collaboration
In the MAI-HOME project, five housing corporations in the Netherlands and Flanders are working together with SMEs, social organizations, and knowledge institutions. Each partner contributes their own expertise and research questions. The pilot homes are located in both provinces of Limburg and the provinces of North Brabant and Antwerp.
The role of Calculus
Calculus is a project partner responsible for assembling the sensor kits and managing the data capture from all installed sensors in the selected homes. With full respect for GDPR legislation, data is collected and shared with other project partners to build knowledge and develop smarter actions to combat energy poverty and make homes more sustainable.
This cross-border project is financially supported by the European Union's Interreg Flanders-Netherlands program.
Consortium partners:
- Open University (Heerlen)
- Eindhoven University of Technology
- PXL University (Hasselt)
- Van de Kreeke Beheer BV (Nuth)
- Calculus (Genk)
- Weller Wonen (Heerlen)
- Wonen Zuid (Roermond)
- Tiwos (Tilburg)
- Wonen in Limburg (Hasselt and Genk)
- LeefGoed (Geel)
- SAAMO Limburg (Heusden-Zolder)
