Exiting news from Birmingham! Robert Guest  has developed a Virtual Home Visualisation and some first images can now be displayed on this website.

One of the key goals of eViz is to investigate means to reduce energy demand in buildings by altering peoples behaviour. With this in mind the concept of a virtual home was developed allowing users to interact with energy systems and help to visualise unseen energy usage. The current virtual home is based on a two bed room modern flat although the intention is to expand this out to multiple home types.

- In the virtual home users can interact with multiple objects that would typically affect the energy usage within the home

- Thermal images have been used greatly to assess the effectiveness of building design and energy efficiency. While the cost of members of the general public using thermal images cameras is very prohibitive the virtual home has been developed to allow the users to see simulated thermal views.

The virtual home will now be tested in collaboration with the Psychology Team to investigate how individuals interact with the virtual home and how the virtual home can be used to increase energy literacy.