How technology will enable us to live in our own homes for longer

Some believe Scotland is on the verge of a “peoplehood” revolution that could see entire communities transformed by technology for the better.
Smart Energy GBSmart Energy GB
Smart Energy GB

Researchers, care and housing providers and future-facing companies are collaborating on ways to help people stay in their homes longer, safely, and sustainably, while also enshrining their right of choice.

It could, say those at the heart of the collaborative project, spark a renaissance in how society expects to live – regardless of health, disability, or stage of life.

In just a few years, smart meters could be used to improve care for people with complicated conditions such as dementia.

Simon Fitzpatrick, development and commercial director with independent living provider Blackwood, has been working with the University of Edinburgh, Smart Energy GB, and other partners on data-based systems to enable people-centred living.

With 1,500 homes across Scotland and 40 years’ experience providing care, Blackwood is focused on innovation using online technology and smart design.

Using secure energy data provided by smart meters with user consent, together with their own “CleverCogs” interface system, the company is using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to enhance how people live.

Their work includes the Smart Meters for Independent Living Project (SMILE), which tracks the energy use patterns of people with disabilities, or those of older people living independently, to flag any issues over care, financial stresses or other potential problems.

Simon says: “Independent living is the ability to have choice and control over interventions in your life. So, if I am a housing customer and I have an element of care or support requirement, I can choose when that is, what format that takes, I have the funding to be able to make those decisions independently. And I live in an environment that allows that to happen.

“I live in an environment that’s accessible, so if I require physical accessibility, I have that at the touch of a button. It is intuitive, it is not complex, the environment I live in is connected enough it allows that.

“If you want to live independently, you want to live in a place you are fundamentally proud to call home, so we have invested heavily in the look, feel and the design as well.”

Creating entire connected neighbourhoods in the future –
what Simon describes as “peoplehood” – could allow all sorts of resilience and independence. “People should choose their interventions,” he adds.

Using a smart energy network can even help achieve sustainable development goals, such as reducing the poverty gap and ending isolation, he suggests, along with existing benefits such as reducing energy waste and helping people save money on energy bills.

Providing free internet so people can connect to smart services and each other, Simon describes as “a fundamental human right”, but the main focus is on how energy-use patterns can serve as an early-warning system.

When you have a smart meter installed you are also given an in-home display which tells you how much energy you’re using in near-real time and, crucially, that data is secure. As part of SMILE, householders give consent to Blackwood for that energy data to be shared with them. The company can then set up a system linked to the smart meter, which triggers an alarm if, say, someone’s shower is left running longer than usual, which could suggest a fall.

If energy-use levels from smart meter data –only ever taken with the consent of each individual household – showed the washing machine was on more regularly, then it might suggest issues with incontinence or other illness. The use of a kettle more frequently, or in the night, could indicate insomnia, dementia-like symptoms or cold.

Dr Lynda Webb, senior researcher at the University of Edinburgh, says a ground-breaking trial at the university’s School of Informatics and The Data Lab – Scotland’s Innovation Centre for data and AI, has already had encouraging results that could transcend traditional “push a button” alarms.

“What this does is give an alarm level behind that, where somebody doesn’t press that alert, but we still recognise there might be something going on,” she explains.

“In the brief trial that we’ve done so far, I was absolutely thrilled that the alerts have been faster than expected and we’ve had hardly any false alarms.”

Her university colleague Nigel Goddard, director of the Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, says the introduction of smart meters, in what has been a ten-year project, has been “revolutionary”.

He adds: “To do this kind of study before smart meters, we would 
have had to go and place something like a smart meter into every participant’s home, which would 
be very expensive and time consuming.

“Everybody’s getting smart
meters. The control of the data and the protocols around that are very well worked out, so it means that
it reduces the barriers to us being able to do this work
considerably.”

By installing smart meters into every house in Britain we could create the platform to support future services of this kind on a national scale. In practice, this means smart meters could help people to live independently in their homes for longer.

Lynda adds: “I’d like to see it in the home of anybody living on their own, or feeling vulnerable, who maybe just wants some assistance.”

“The key thing, all of the time, is that the person has choice and control.

Join the energy revolution. Search: “Get a smart meter”.

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