MONITORING GAS AND WATER CONSUMPTION THROUGH ICTs FOR IMPROVED USER AWARENESS

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies have great potential, in the context of natural resources utilization, to improve efficiency by making homes, offices, industries and transportation systems more ‘intelligent’: more information use can be traded off with less energy use. The paper presents a system to monitor and interactively control water and gas utilization, allowing consumers to be better informed about their consumption behaviour and challenging them to improve efficiency in utilization along with saving costs. In the system, smart meters are used in order to collect data on gas and water consumption; the data collected through this kind of meters are made available, almost in real time, in a graphical representation both to the customer and the supplier. The availability of a higher quantity of information about consumption can be used by consumers to improve utilization efficiency; moreover, it can also be seen as a challenge to modify personal consumption behaviours. As a consequence, in both cases, there can be an increase in saving natural resources and costs. In the paper, the developed system is described and its potential benefits are discussed with reference to similar experiences and a conceptual background.