Romania: Workshop at InCity

On June 5, a small delegation of facility and energy managers, technical team and tenants from the InCity residential complex took part in eTEACHER’s design process towards more effective ICT solutions and had the chance to give a feedback as to how their buildings can be made better.

Located in the Vitan area on Dudeşti Street in Bucharest, Romania, the InCity houses more than 360 families. Four of its new and modern apartment blocks were chosen as part of eTEACHER’s demo site as the project aims to empower buildings’ end-users to be more energy efficient and to help them feel more comfortable in their living environment. A total number of 2,000 occupants will be directly involved in the project.

An InCity Residence Buildings Users Workshop was designed to gather as many users as possible, coming from different age groups and professions, for the eTEACHERS consortium to get a comprehensive picture of their energy usage. The event highlighted the importance of addressing users’ pro-active attitude as key to lowering their energy consumption.

A series of presentations and interactive sessions (both group and individual) were developed to fully understand the users’ personal choices and willingness in changing their behaviour towards energy consumption. All participants were actively involved in the activities and provided a lot of helpful ideas and suggestions. The outcome of these activities will be used as a basis in developing a set of dedicated, personalised ICT tools that will help users raise their awareness and consequentially, improve their well-being and raise their monetary savings, as well as, lower the social, environmental and economic costs of their buildings in society.

The workshop gave eTEACHER an opportunity to understand the InCity tenants’ needs and to let them understand what the project has to offer and stress their role in it.