Estimated Daily Consumption (No Meter Insights)

The purpose of the No Meter Insights feature is to provide Energy Insights for end users where no Energy Data is available from a meter, device, or similar sources. By leveraging the data in the Eliq Platform, it is possible to access Daily Estimated Consumption for any residential home, unlocking the suite of Eliq Energy Insights such as Similar Homes, Energy Usage Categories, and Energy Advice simply by asking the end user a few questions. The Eliq Platform will then provide estimated energy consumption data to help the end user understand and engage with their energy insights.

The outcome is that Eliq can help provide Energy Insights to any user, whether they have Smart Meter Energy Data or no Energy Data at all.

One particular use case where the No Meter Insights feature is an effective tool is as a stepping stone towards Smart Meter Data through Eliq Connect. A customer can quickly get onboarded into an app by providing a few Profile questions. A second step would be to use Eliq Connect to fetch Smart Meter Data from a Data Hub. By utilizing the No Meter Insights as a first step, the onboarding process for end users is shortened, reducing the risk of drop-offs. End users can also better understand the possibilities that the Insights in the app may provide once Smart Meter data is available.

How does this work?

In an app, it is possible to trigger the creation of Estimated Daily Consumption data by allowing an end user who is onboarding to answer some key questions in their Profile, including one additional question: What is your yearly energy consumption for the previous year?

For each location where a value for the previous year’s energy consumption has been provided, Eliq will generate Estimated Energy Consumption data for each day of the current and previous year. The generated consumption data can then be requested using the same endpoints for Consumption as are used for locations with Meter data, and can be presented to the end user.

The estimated consumption data is generated by an algorithm that uses the inputted Location Profile data and the previous year’s consumption value to generate personalised estimations based on similar homes with actual Energy Data.

API

In order to provide an optimal No Meter (Daily Estimated Insights) end user experience, a combination of Insights API Endpoint need to be implemented.

Create a Location Profile

As an end users onboards an app, a Location Profile should be created.

Add the “Previous Years Annual Consumption” Value

In order to trigger the Eliq platform to generate Daily Estimated Consumption Values for a home that are adjusted to the homes consumption profile, an annual consumption for the previous year and for the fuel needs to be provided using POST location manual Annual Consumption Value.

Get location Annual Consumption Suggestion

To help an end user fill in a correct Annual Consumption value, the Get location Annual Consumption Suggestion can show an estimated annual consumption value in an app. See Use Cases below for more information.

Change “Previous Years Annual Consumption” Value or add more annual consumption values

If an end user wishes to change the Annual Consumption value for a previous year the endpoint Get location manual Annual Consumption Value can be used to fetch all saved Annual Consumption Values for a Location to show the end user in an app. If the user wishes to update the value for a specific year or add more historic Annual Consumption values, the endpoint POST location manual Annual Consumption Value can be used.

Delete location manual Annual Consumption Value will delete the value for a specific year. This may result in a Location not having any No Meter (Daily Estimated Consumption Values) generated.

See the Use Cases below to understand how a optimal Onboarding as well as change to Previous Years Annual Consumption values could look like in an app.

Algorithm

The algorithm will generate Daily Estimated Energy Consumption data for the same year that an Annual Consumption Value was added for a Location via using the endpoint POST location manual Annual Consumption Value.

The Algorithm will also create Daily Estimated Consumption data for completed days for the following, ongoing year.

Supported fuel types and Units

Daily Estimated Energy Consumption is only available for Electricity

Available Resolutions

Daily Estimated Energy Consumption is available an a daily level as the highest available resolution.

Requirements

Location profile requirements

Daily Estimated Consumption

While the Get location Annual Consumption Suggestion endpoint requires a few Location Profile features, the Daily Estimated Consumption requires only one – heating_type_primary. Without heating_type_primary, the Daily Estimated Consumption algorithm won’t be able to return any estimates.

Note! You must provide an Annual Consumption value for a Location through the endpoint POST location manual Annual Consumption Value in order for the Eliq platform to generate any Daily Estimated Consumption values. We will use the latest Annual Consumption value for that year and the next two years at most, after that we require more up-to-date Annual Consumption Values and we recommend for users to update it every year.

Annual Consumption Suggestion

The endpoint Get location Annual Consumption Suggestion does require a Location Profile and certain Location Profile Properties to be exist for the requested Location in order to return a result. Which Location Profile properties are required depend on the Country that the Location belongs to. This is because the algorithms created to estimate a Locations Annual Consumption vary between countries in order to provide the best result. Usually some combination of these Location Profile properties are required: persons, heating_type_primary, house_type, hotwater_type. Other properties might not be required but can improve results if provided.

Contact Eliq for more details on Location Profile Requirements for different countries for the Annual Consumption Suggestion endpoint.

Keeping the “Previous Years Annual Consumption” Value up to date

It is possible to add Annual Consumption Values to more than one previous year looking backwards. Also, when a new year has begun, asking the end user to provide a new “previous years Annual Consumption Value” can be prompted in an app which engages with the end user and encourages the user to input a new value to get better estimated consumption insights for the previous and new year. See use-case below for an example how to do this.

Use Cases

Onboarding

A good onboarding is key to providing as much value as possible to the end user in as little time as possible.

It is recommended that an app adds the yearly consumption for the previous year question on a screen at the end of the onboarding journey, after the user has completed the “profile wizard.” On this screen, ask the user to input their total energy consumption from the previous year.

To help the user fill in the correct value, it is recommended that the estimated annual consumption value is presented as a baseline, which the user can adjust before saving. In this way, an app will:

• Guide the end user toward setting a relevant annual consumption value, helping to avoid very inaccurate numbers—only a small adjustment should be necessary.
• Allow the user to “skip this step for now” by saving the suggested value, in order to avoid blocking the onboarding flow.

Adding and adjusting Annual Consumption Values

You can allow users to add or adjust their previous year's consumption on a settings page. This will improve the accuracy of the consumption estimates.

If a value for the previous year (from today) is missing, the estimated energy consumption will be generated based on the last available annual consumption value, which may not be as accurate.

If a value is provided for previous years, estimated energy consumption will be available for more historic years as well.

New year – new annual consumption value

When it is a new year it is a good idea to remind users to add a new annual consumption value from the previous year which was just completed.

Migrate end users from No Meter to Smart Meter Insights

Eliq Connect can allow users to connect their Smart Meter to the Eliq platform and the provided app to access actual, high-resolution energy consumption data.

In an app, it is possible to create a user journey that allows users to choose whether they want to connect to a Smart Meter or not. Based on their answer, the app can either allow users to connect to a smart meter using Eliq Connect to get more accurate insights immediately, or prompt them to fill in their previous year's annual consumption value.

If fast and smooth onboarding is a priority, it is recommended to onboard all users with the No Meter Insights experience first, and highlight the option to connect to their smart meter as a later step, after onboarding is complete. This approach helps shorten the onboarding process, as connecting to a Smart Meter may involve several complex steps that could extend the journey and increase the risk of drop-offs and churn.