What data we need
To run the Living Lab, we need some information about you, your home and how you use energy. Some of this comes from the details you give us, and some comes automatically if you choose to link your smart meter or another device.
We look after everything carefully, and you can stop sharing at any time.
Why we collect data
We collect data so we can understand how new energy products and services work in real homes. We need different data for different purposes:
- Basic information about your name and email address is used to contact you, invite you to trials and send you vouchers once you've taken part.
- Your address is useful where a given trial is only running in certain parts of the country, or if we need to post you something or send an engineer to your home.
- Information about your home, your family, and what technologies you have in your home - down to very specific things, like whether you have cavity walls or underfloor insulation! - are used to help understand which trials are appropriate for your home.
- Data from your smart meter and other linked devices is most important of all - this is the powerhouse behind a lot of our research!
Next, we'll talk about what we do with the data once we have it.
How we use data
- Selecting homes for trials
When we're setting up a new trial, we know very early on what kind of homes each trial is going to need, and we pick Labbers to offer the trial to based on this.
This often means checking the details of your home to see if it meets the trial's needs.
- Running trials
Once you're in a trial, we use the device data we're getting from your home to run the research.
This can mean things like:
- Keeping a close eye on your smart meter data to see if the trial is causing any changes in your energy usage compared to your data from this month last year.
- Sending a prototype charging pattern to your EV through ev.energy, then watching the incoming data from your EV to see how it reacts.
- Non-trial research
Every so often, we use the Living Lab to answer simple questions about energy use.
This can be for all sorts of reasons - often as secondary support to a different project.
Questions we could be looking to answer include things like:
- How many homes with solar panels also have a home battery? Is it affected by the size of the house?
- How many Labbers have added new solar panels to their homes in the last 12 months? Have more people added new EV chargers, or new solar panels?
How we collect and store your data
How often we collect data
Once you've connected a device to the Living Lab, we'll start receiving data from it automatically.
For some devices, like smart meters, you'll need to periodically confirm that you still consent to us receiving it. This happens once every 18 months, and we'll send you a reminder when it comes up.
How long we keep your data
When you apply for a trial, the trial's terms and conditions will lay out how long we intend to keep the data gathered as part of the trial.
We generally only keep data as long as necessary to complete the trial, but each trial is different. For more general Living Lab data retention, please see our privacy notice.
When we share your data
Sometimes, we need to share your data with third parties in order to run a given trial.
We know that data sharing can be worrying. We will:
- Share the minimum amount of data necessary for our research, and avoid sharing personal data wherever possible.
- Always tell you advance if we are going to share personal data, including what data we will be sharing, who we'll be sharing it with, and why.
- Take care that your data is handled securely and carefully at all times.
We will never:
- Use or sell your personal data for marketing or other non-research purposes.
- Share identifying information about you without your permission.
- Give third party companies access to your devices without your permission.
Sometimes, we do sell data to other research partners. This data is only ever sold as anonymised "packs" of information about homes, with all identifying information omitted, and only ever for research purposes. If you'd like to know more about this, please contact us.
If you leave the Living Lab
If you no longer want to be part of the Living Lab, we'll do the following with your data:
- We'll disconnect from any and all devices you may have connected to the Lab.
- We'll remove you from any trials you are on, and remove access to your personal data from anyone we've needed to share it with.
- We'll remove all personal/identifying data we hold about you, from all of our systems.
- We'll retain data from your smart meters and other linked devices up until the day you told us you wanted to leave. This data will now be associated with a randomly-assigned number which cannot be traced to you or your home.
Join the Living Lab today!
It only takes a few minutes. Help us make energy cleaner, simpler, and more affordable for everyone!
Need some help? Contact the Living Lab team