Smart Washing Machines
We are trying to understand to what extent customers can be flexible about when they use electricity. Our appliance of choice to to test this concept is a ‘smart’ washing machine, which can be interrupted by a signal from the network operator. We supplied smart washing machines to over 150 customers taking part in this trial, all of whom agreed to either a restricted hours or direct control proposition.
With the restricted hours trial, customers will be charged a higher tariff if they use their washing machine during a specific time period (in this case during the 4-8pm peak). With the direct control trial, a signal message was sent direct to the washing machine asking the customer to schedule their wash for a different time. With both propositions, the customer is free to bypass requests or settings and use the appliance as they wish.
Why are we doing this?
We want to understand whether customers can be encouraged or incentivised to be flexible about when and how they use electricity. If customers are willing to be flexible about when they perform routine daily chores like laundry, they could contribute to helping network operators to shift load out of peak. With these trials we are testing customer acceptability, as well as the appliances performance, connectivity and overall reliability, giving homeowners greater insight, and therefore control, over their own energy use.
Key Facts and Figures
What have we learned so far?
Our interim findings suggest that customers are able to be flexible and reschedule routine domestic tasks outside of peak demand periods. Our studies have shown that some customers are willing to change their behaviour and routines – using thir washing machine outside typical periods of peak demand for electricity for example − to take advantage of cheaper tariffs.
In August 2014 we published datasets from our smart washing machine restricted hours and direct control trials, these can be accessed below. Further analysis and insights into customer flexibility and responses to interventions will be published throughout the remainder of 2014.
