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.

This study is subject to restrictive Secure Access conditions as it contains an additional detailed activities variable. The End User Licence (EUL) version which is the same, but excludes this detailed variable, is available from the UK Data Service under SN 8634. Users are advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements. 

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.

The data covers the following topics:

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