MAI HOME

ongoing

The causal link between energy poverty and poor energy labels of homes has been quickly established. Vulnerable target groups often live in poor or moderately isolated homes. Tenants are dependent on the landlord for sustainability and owners do not always have the necessary finances or they do not know what the steps to take are. In addition, the payback period of such investment is quite long. Artificial intelligence as a solution to energy poverty and CO2 emission reduction Furthermore, after renovations, the CO2 emissions are often higher than calculated because of a rebound effect where sustainable solutions lead to higher consumption because one is less motivated to pursue sustainable behaviour. In order to gain more and faster insight into this complex whole where neither physical investment, policy nor technology alone can offer solutions, collaboration is needed. Mai-HOME stands for “With artificial intelligence to combat energy poverty and optimal CO2 emission reduction in homes”. The project aims to develop an AI solution to provide less capable citizens with insight into their energy consumption. But the housing corporations also learn because they can make planned investments in a smarter way. The project explores various processes such as the development of gamification so that people learn about their living behaviour, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for employees of housing corporations and social housing companies and the upgrade of the online tool Together Duurzamer Wonen that ENLEB developed. Pilot homes in the border region will collect energy consumption data with which algorithms can be trained. The algorithms can make decisions independently, e.g. lower the heating or turn off light if no one is present. Furthermore, instructions can be given to residents to fill the washing machine, for example, so that the machine can run a day later in sunny weather. For each pilot home, we look at the effect on housing behaviour and, above all, whether there is a reduction in the energy costs and CO2 emissions of homes.

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