Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Measuring and Evaluating Time-use and Electricity-use Relationships (METER) is a project collecting and depositing data on UK household electricity use, activities and other contextual and demographic information. METER seeks to improve our understanding of household electricity use, it's timing, flexibility and societal importance. By combining high-resolution household electricity readings with simultaneous activity records of household members, METER data provides a platform for new analytical insights. These include among others a more detailed understanding of socio-technical drivers behind:

• high and low electrical consumption
• high peak time consumption
• ability to respond to the load shifting interventions
• impact of interventions on individuals
• trends in electricity user over time and in response to the adoption of new technologies and social practices

Data was recorded from February 2016 to January 2019. This deposit includes 264 electricity records (28 hours each) with 16378 coded activities from 529 people.

Further information about the study can be found on the project website, on its' Gateway to Research webpage and on its' GitHub webpage.

This study is available under standard End User Licence (EUL) conditions. The Secure Access version which is the same, but includes an extra detailed activities variable, is available from the UK Data Service under SN 8475. Users are advised to first obtain this standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements. 

The data covers the following topics:

• household electricity use;
• activity data;
• enjoyment;
• socio-demographic and personal survey information.