SusLabNWE aims to set up in North-West Europe a networked infrastructure of houses and living laboratories for studying technology-user interaction in real-life home environments at 5 locations around NWE: Rotterdam (NL). Ruhr area (DE). London (UK). Gothenburg (SE) and Zurich (CH). The objective is to become a world-leading networked knowledge hub. well-embedded in the local knowledge infrastructure. business and society. that provides unique and novel testing facilities for industry (large companies and SMEs). knowledge institutes and policymakers. and methodologies for development with actual users. sustainable products and services that are integrated part of the build environment (e.g. heating). Each location will be a public-private partnership set up according to the same philosophy and requirements and networked through a common data sharing infrastructure. The set-up will be based on the results of the LIVING LAB Design Study (FP7) and will consist of • access to a stock of existing homes and new sustainable (demo)homes in each location. to be used (with the consent of inhabitants) for performing insight testing on daily practices at home • one or more easily adaptable living laboratories in each location. temporarily inhabited by volunteers participating in user-testing with and co-creation of prototypes of sustainable products and services. By enabling companies. researchers and policymakers to collaborate in multi-disciplinary user-centred testing. design and development at SusLabNWE infrastructures facilities. the project aims to achieve: • increased uptake by consumers of better user-centred sustainable innovations of NWE companies. leading to increased economic competitiveness for a wide range of sectors that develop sustainable products and services • fostering of societal needs such as sustainability (including CO2 emission reduction. resource and energy efficiency) by increasing the sustainability of households Achievements: Living LabsA key element of the SusLab infrastructure are the SusLab Living Labs. Each of the 4 participating countries already have one of these innovative and real life testing locations.What is a Living Lab?Living Labs are extremely energy efficient (often energy neutral and sometimes even energy producing) houses. These houses are 'living' laboratories that simulate a real life home environment and are used for testing new products and systems around energy. Being set up as real homes, they can be used as such for a short stay or a prolonged period of time. They are equipped with the latest technology around energy saving and sustainability. Occupied by research participants that provide feedback, they are a perfect environment for testing innovative products, systems and processes.Brochure The SusLab approach, Toolbox and activities are best described in the online SusLab Brochure: http://suslab.eu/fileadmin/suslab/Images/SusLab_brochure_2014_1.0.pdfSensor NetworkSensor BoxTest locations (Living Labs and existing households) in the 4 partner countries implement the SusLab Sensing Toolkit with the Sensor Box to take objective measurements of areas in the house, including CO2, humidity, air temperature and velocity. TimelineThe SusLab Timeline allows participants to share their activities and physical context around thermal comfort. Users can indicate what they are doing, how warmly they are dressed, in what room they are at what time. In combination with the objective data from the Sensor Box, this provides important information to the researchers.Smart PlugsSusLab Smart Plugs measure the energy use of different appliances that are used in the home.Comfort DialThe SusLab Comfort Dial can be used to indicate thermal comfort. By turning the knob on the front, participants can share whether they are comfortable, (too) cold or (too) warm. Central DatabaseAll the data that is obtained with the Sensor Box and Smart Plugs is sent to the SusLab Central Database where this can be analysed and used in further research.Design InterfacesInnovative design interfaces and can be linked with this SusLab Sensor Network. These can receive information from the Sensing Toolkit and the Central Database about the energy consumption in the house where they are placed. The interface then provides feedback to the household members regarding their energy use, the energy availability (for example from solar panels) and thus increases awareness around their energy consumption. Blog SusLab Winter PilotThe SusLab winter pilot is a study to gain detailed insights into the role of user behavior in relation to energy use and thermal comfort in homes using the SusLab Toolkit and methodology. This trans national study has taken place during the winter of 2014 / 2015 and was simultaneously carried out in all 4 SusLab partner countries: the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.