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Empowering the Irish energy transition: Harnessing sensor technology for engagement in an embedded living lab
Date
2025-07
Abstract
The transition to a decarbonised energy system in Ireland presents significant sociotechnical challenges. This paper, focused on the work of the SMARTLAB project at the Citizen Innovation Lab in Limerick city, investigated the potential of a localised living lab approach to address these challenges. Engaging across 70 buildings and their inhabitants, the project captured the evolution of attitudes and intentions towards the clean energy transition in ways directly relevant to future policy implementation across grid redevelopment, smart service design, and national retrofit. Project methodology was framed by a living lab approach, with wireless energy and indoor environment sensors installed in participant buildings and participant journeys developed by harnessing the Citizen Innovation Lab ecosystem. The results indicate behaviour changes among participants, particularly focusing on indoor environmental conditions. The study concludes that embedded, localised living labs offer a methodological framework which can capture diverse datasets and encompass complex contemporary contexts towards transition goals.
Supervisor
Description
Publisher
MDPI
Citation
Sustainability 17, 6677
Collections
Files
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Lyes_2025_Empowering.pdf
Adobe PDF, 2.59 MB