The UK is facing a cost-of-living crisis. This is forcing millions of households to alter their lifestyles in order to save money. Rising energy bills are a major source of this burden, but households lack the information they need to effectively reduce their usage. Smart meters can serve as a constant reminder of rising household energy bills but offer no information as to how much electricity individual appliances are consuming. They instead provide delayed and aggregated data, and have even led to the phenomenon of "smart-meter anxiety". In an attempt to save money, many have resorted to time-consuming and make-shift methods to identify energy drains in the home.
To tackle this, we are developing CLIP, a low-cost and self-installable electricity disaggregation device. With a single CLIP, we will detect individual household appliances in real-time. The CLIP data will be accessible through our app, where this information alone has been shown in research to reduce energy consumption by up to 20%.
CLIP will also offer further benefits to households through providing personalised insights generated from the data it collects. This will enable households to make informed and cost-effective choices regarding their electricity usage. For example, energy efficient product switches can be identified through CLIP's detection of unknown power drains and faulty appliances, which can consume excessive amounts of energy. In a recent trial, we even showed one household they could save over £100 each year by simply switching from streaming TV through their PlayStation to a smart TV stick.
It is important to us to make CLIP accessible and affordable for households to try. Therefore, it will be offered on a subscription model, with the hardware provided for free. CLIP will also be designed for easy and safe self-installation, to avoid the inconvenience and expense of scheduling an electrician.
Developing CLIP is a team of Design Engineering graduates from Imperial College London. Our expertise covers machine learning, human-centred design, and product development. We are passionate about developing technology that makes a positive impact on people and the environment. CLIP is the combination of our abilities, under the backdrop of the energy crisis and motivated by our strong desire for a net zero UK.