Impact Tracker
The impact tracker provides a means for both Carbon Co-op Members and clients of the People Powered Retrofit service to carry out basic benchmarking of energy use and carbon emissions for their homes.
The app is available on two different endpoints: /ppr-benchmark for clients of the People Powered Retrofit and /impact-tracker, for members. The survey uses a Trail mixin to track progress and prevent jumping ahead, and also allows conditional branching.
The survey is saved to the database after the submission of each question with the ID of the database record stored in the users’ session. At the end a ‘review your answers’ is presented before the survey is marked ‘completed’ and the results displayed. Any attempt to return to any question after this point directs the user to the start and begins a new survey.
If a Hub user is logged in when the survey is completed, the survey is connected to the user’s CRM Contact and the user is not asked for their email. The Postcode question is also pre-filled from their CRM record.
Survey responses are linked to CRM Contacts either through the presence of a logged-in Hub user or by looking for a Contact whose primary email address matches one supplied by the user. If multiple contacts are found, this is flagged to an administrator. All responses that can be linked to a CRM contact are shown on their contact details in the CRM.
Variants
Depending on the endpoint visited, /ppr-benchmark or /impact-tracker, the user will be shown different branding and content. The following features are only included for the membership variant:
RAG (Red/Amber/Green) reliability ratings shown at the ‘review your answers’ stage to encourage users to improve their answers with better data.
A permalink URL to view or share their results, which are publicly accessible but totally anonymous.
Charts on the results page comparing the profiled household energy use to the averages within its postcode and LSOA, if one could be identified, as well as to the national average.
There are also minor differences in wording to reflect the different purposes of the tracker for each persona.
The variant of the survey (“MEMBERSHIP” / “RETROFIT”) that has been completed is recorded in the database for each record.
Third Party Data
A number of sources of third party data are used to calculate energy consumption and carbon emissions and to provide contextualisation:
Energy Performance of Buildings Data for England and Wales (https://epc.opendatacommunities.org/) from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. Provides an API to query EPC data for all properties in England and Wales and is used to get a figure for floor area.
Lower Layer Super Output Area domestic energy consumption figure for electricity and gas, provided by BEIS.
Experimental Postcode Level domestic energy consumption for electricity and gas, provided by BEIS.
The two BEIS datasets are loaded by a custom-made dataset app which extracts CSV files into the local database.
Constant lookup figure values are also used for fuel energies (kWh per m3 etc) and carbon intensities. These are taken from various sources including SAP 10 and BEIS data.
Models
There is only one model used for this app - the SurveyInput.
Field |
Description |
|
|---|---|---|
created_at |
Creation timestamp, set automatically |
datetime |
updated_at |
Time at which the most recent answer was submitted to register the property with N3RGY |
datetime |
completed_at |
Time at which the user confirmed their responses and viewed results. |
datetime |
uuid |
UUID used for viewing results after completion and viewed results. |
UUID |
contact |
A related CRM Contact, identified either by a user being logged in, or using the entered email address. |
Contact |
variant |
Type of reponse (“MEMBERSHIP”/”RETROFIT”) |
SurveyVariant |
email_address |
Email address entered by the user |
string |
occupants |
Number of occupants entered by user |
Decimal |
postcode |
Postcode entered by user |
string |
consumption_data_year |
Year to which all the data entered relates |
PositiveSmallInteger |
gas_consumption |
Annual gas consumption in kWh, entered by user |
PositiveInteger |
elec_consumption |
Annual gas consumption in kWh, entered by user |
PositiveInteger |
uses_coal |
User’s response to whether coal is used |
boolean |
coal_qty |
Quantity of annual coal use entered by user |
Decimal |
coal_fuel_unit |
Unit used to enter amount of coal by user |
FuelUnit |
coal_consumption |
Calculated energy consumption in coal form in kWh |
PositiveInteger |
uses_logs |
User’s response to whether logs are used for heating |
boolean |
logs_qty |
Quantity of logs used for heating annually entered by user |
Decimal |
logs_fuel_unit |
Unit used to enter amount of logs by user |
FuelUnit |
logs_consumption |
Calculated energy consumption from logs in kWh |
PositiveInteger |
uses_pellets |
User’s response to whether wood pellets are used for heating at this property. |
boolean |
pellets_qty |
Quantity of wood pellets used annually entered by user |
Decimal |
pellets_fuel_unit |
Unit used to enter amount of wood pellets by user |
FuelUnit |
pellets_consumption |
Calculated energy consumption from wood pellets in kWh |
PositiveInteger |
electric_vehicle |
Whether an EV is charged at the property |
boolean |
electric_vehicle_mileage |
Mileage driven in EV for the year |
PositiveInteger |
floor_area |
Total floor area for property in m3 |
PositiveInteger |
selected_epc |
If an EPC was used to obtain the floor area, the ID for the EPC as used in the MCHLG database |
string |
epc_for_neighbour |
If true, this EPC relates to a neighbouring property with same layout; if false to the property in question |
boolean |
gas_origin |
The origin for the gas consumption figure |
ConsumptionOrigin |
elec_origin |
The origin for the gas consumption figure |
ConsumptionOrigin |
floor_are_origin |
The origin for the floor area figure |
FloorAreaOrigin |
lsoa |
The Lower Layer Super Output Area for this property |
string |
annual_co2_kg |
The calculated annual CO2 emissions in kg |
PositiveInteger |
Possible values of SurveyVariant are:
“RETROFIT” - i.e. PPR Benchmark
“MEMBERSHIP” - intended for wider consumption and not solely reserved for members.
Possible values for FuelUnit are:
“M3” - cubic metres
“KG” - kilograms
“T” - tonnes
Possible values for ConsumptionOrigin are:
“K” (KNOWN) - from actual consumption, either from smart meter data or retrospective energy bills
“E” (ESTIMATE) - from an estimate made by a supplier in the absence of a meter reading
Possible values for FloorAreaOrigin are:
“K” (KNOWN) - taken from plans
“M” (MEASURED) -taken from measurements
“C” (EPC) - taken from an EPC