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FEEdBACk project aims to show in a playful way how we can save energy and conserve resources in everyday life. On January 13, the FEEdBACk demo users from Lippe got to know the app, which will now accompany them for the next 24 weeks.  

"With the help of ECOplay, CO2 emissions are reduced in a playful way, a sustainable way of life is shown and in the end the energy bill is also reduced. This is a win-win situation for everyone involved," says District Administrator, Axel Lehmann, in his digital greeting, which welcomes the participants in the app.

 In the long term, ECOplay app is intended to bring about subconscious changes in behaviour and energy savings. The mobile app is equipped with an interactive and user-friendly interface that playfully motivates project participants to question and improve their own energy behaviour.

"After all, even small changes in daily habits can lead to considerable energy and money savings overall”, Matthias   Ansbach, FEEdBACk project member from the NRW consumer advice centre, points out. The games platform offers a further incentive by staging a competition between the FEEdBACk participants. Who has answered the most quiz questions correctly? Who solved the research task the fastest? Rankings, point systems and non-cash prizes are designed to increase the motivation to save energy.

"In ECOplay the participating households go through three campaign elements. They will deal with sustainable and energy-efficient behaviour through short videos, quizzes, challenges and a specially developed drama series", explains Thekla Merfort from Lippe county, FEEdBACk project manager.

A total of 28 households from Lippe participate in this EU project and provide important insights. Since the start of the project in November 2017, technical requirements for a successful introduction of the ECOplay app have been created. 

FEEdBACk partners developed digital applications to feed data into the gaming platform from behind the scenes. In Lippe, all participating households were equipped with a smart meter that records electricity consumption.

The next step is the installation of sensors that monitor the indoor climate (light intensity, CO2 levels, humidity and temperature). The data collected is also fed into the gaming platform and motivates the participants to behave in the most energy-efficient way possible. Johannes Mönikes, participant in the FEEdBACk project, is already looking forward to entering the energy saving competition: "With the help of the sensors and the games, we can now easily recognize mistakes that we make in everyday life and learn with ECOplay to avoid them. Climate protection is currently an important topic and will remain so in future.”

Lippe is one of three test regions in Europe. For the testing of the playful approach, different regions were selected, which differ in terms of climatic conditions. In addition, a differentiation was also made according to building types or uses. In Barcelona, FEEdBACk is tested in public buildings in a mediterranean climate, in Porto it is tested for office buildings in an oceanic climate and the district of Lippe offers the test setting for private households in a continental climate.