WE BUILD AND TEST IDEAS FOR

Consumer Insight at the Energy Systems Catapult

HOME TRUTHS®

Discover what people really value with bespoke research

SERVICE DESIGN

Build appealing propositions with our experienced players

DIARY STUDIES

Discover how consumers use your product or service

FAIR FUTURES®

Harness innovation to reduce vulnerability to fuel poverty and design smarter consumer protection

DIGITAL PROTOTYPING

UX/UI excellence from a team of proven heavyweights

LIVING LAB

See beyond what people say to understand what they do in smart homes around the UK

Trial Services

Usability testing

Make sure people can easily use your product or service before you launch it. Give designers the information they need to create delightful experiences.

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Projects

Will customers buy Heat as a Service?

When it comes to heating, people care more about their experience than how it’s delivered. They want to control how much they spend on their comfort, but don’t know how. If they could buy their Heating as a Service, then they choose how much to spend on their plan.

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Research Services

See beyond what people say

We’ve done various studies to understand how life shapes energy use. We use sensors to see beyond what people say to what they do, and models to relate behaviour to energy use.

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Research Services

Home Truths®

Get rapid, cost-effective consumer feedback on your product, service or policy idea. Home Truths® is the Catapult’s online panel of 000’s of UK households.

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Projects

Warmth on Prescription

Millions of households live with illnesses made worse by the cold. What if you could prescribe a warm home to them? We thought we’d try this out by prototyping a smart energy service for households suffering from a cold-related chronic illness.

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Projects

Fair Futures® Bootcamp

We gathered the best in the industry to run a 1-day bootcamp-style hackathon where this super-team developed a free open-source tool to score and publicly test solutions to UK fuel poverty.

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Projects

Hot Water Design Sprint

There’s growing interest in the idea that businesses could sell energy as a service. Confident we could sell Heat as a Service, we wanted to explore how to add Hot Water. We used a Design Sprint to see how far we could get in three days.

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Projects

How can we help businesses cut carbon emissions?

If we are to reach net zero carbon emissions, businesses will have to play their part.

We set out to understand what businesses are trying to achieve through energy management and what their key needs are to determine what an energy management solution might look like and how demand-side response (DSR) could be part of this solution.

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Research Services

Segmentation

People are different, especially when it comes to energy. They want different things and do different things to get what they want. Segmentation puts similar people into groups.

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Projects

Is there room for flexibility with EV charging?

As renewable energy generation grows, matching available electricity supply to consumers’ demands gets harder.
We looked at how Electric vehicles could help to balance the grid by testing DSR with domestic EV users. Can this fit into people’s lives? Or will they reject it if it takes away their control?

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Projects

The delight of better control

People often find their heating controls confusing and hard to use. Most put up with problems like drafts or damp. We knew people liked better control. BEIS wanted to find out how they actually used it, so we used our Living Lab of 100 homes to find out.

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Like an agency, but not.

TRUSTED, INDEPENDENT, NOT-FOR-PROFIT

We succeed when you succeed: leverage our unique position

CREDIBLE FUTUREGAZERS

We are helping shape the policy landscape for the next 25 years

HYPER-CONNECTED

Matchmakers for government and entrepreneurs

WHOLE-SYSTEM MODELLING

Use Catapult modelling tools to validate propositions across the wider energy system

WE OFFER SUPPORT

We collaborate with innovators to deliver projects that move towards decarbonisation goals

WHO ARE WE?

The Energy Systems Catapult is a not-for-profit set up by government to help the energy sector innovate. PeopleLab is home to our Consumer Insight team. 

Find out more about the rest of the Catapult here then get us involved.

Invite us to your Hackathons and Design Sprints…

…it’s free!

WE CAN BRING OUR

Come and see us for a friendly

chat over a cuppa.

 

Cannon House, 18 The Priory Queensway

Birmingham B4 6BS8

We love small print. Said nobody, ever.