Description
Living Energy (LE) is a Living Lab that provides access to a community of real energy users to test, validate and co-develop energy solutions under real-world conditions, significantly reducing the time between solution development and market entry.
LE was initiated in 2021 with the aim of studying the energy consumption habits of Portuguese households. It is based on a community of more than 100 residential homes across mainland Portugal and the Azores, with diverse user profiles.
LE aims to help address challenges such as the difficulty of validating energy solutions with real users before commercialisation, the lack of high-resolution data on disaggregated household energy consumption, the need to assess the impact of energy efficiency measures and energy poverty mitigation strategies, and the gap between the technical development of a solution and its acceptance and adoption by users.
LE has been used in projects addressing energy poverty, studying consumer behaviour and electrifying bottled gas consumption in residential contexts. Additionally, LE has served as a demonstrator for innovative energy solutions in research and innovation projects funded under the PRR (ILLIANCE, ATE) and Horizon Europe (COMMUNITAS, REEFLEX, ENERSHARE).
Technology
Energy efficiency in construction and buildings
Available Resources
The Living Energy platform is structured into three complementary components.
Energy data monitoring platform. The LE infrastructure enables measurement of total and disaggregated energy consumption in real household environments, covering more than 400 appliances, including flexible assets such as heat pumps, water heaters and electric vehicle chargers, as well as energy production from more than 20 photovoltaic panels. Temperature and humidity sensors complement energy monitoring with indoor environmental data. All this information is available through the Living Energy Portal, a web app with interactive dashboards for visualising consumption, production and environmental conditions.
Access to a real user community for testing, validation and co-development.
LE provides a diverse community of more than 110 households with varied energy consumption profiles to test solutions under real-world conditions. The existing LE community can be used, or, if project requirements demand it, SEL can create a new dedicated community, leveraging its proven model. Tests may include physical equipment installed in households, digital platforms, services or business models. LE also enables interactive activities for data collection that complement sensor data.
Data and knowledge for informed decision-making. The LE database contains approximately 4 billion data points, including high-resolution data on aggregated and disaggregated consumption by device, photovoltaic production and indoor environmental conditions. This rich dataset supports behavioural analysis, impact assessment of interventions and decarbonisation studies, providing a robust evidence base for strategic decisions by companies and policymakers.
Conditions of Use
Access to Living Energy is provided as a commercial service by Smart Energy Lab. SEL works with the client to define project objectives, study design and technical requirements, and manages the relationship with participants.
Community participants are compensated for their participation through a credit/voucher system, and prior consent is mandatory for any test involving households or individual data. In cases involving physical equipment, installation and compensation are agreed on a case-by-case basis.
Potential Stakeholders
- Energy technology companies aiming to validate and accelerate the market entry of new products, services, or business models with real users
- Utilities and energy retailers interested in testing new tariffs, flexibility services, or demand response programmes
- Equipment manufacturers (HVAC, appliances, EVs, solar panels) requiring real-world performance data
- Public authorities and regulators seeking to assess the impact of energy policies or energy poverty programmes
- Research centres and universities requiring high-resolution data or controlled environments for behavioural studies
Website and Social Media
Visual Materials
Contacts
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