Wi6Labs participates in the collaborative project BeFlexi

The objective of the BeFlexi project? To reduce the energy bill of high schools by at least 30%. And to achieve this, there’s nothing like a “big sweater” day to raise awareness among all pupils!

In 2017, WI6LABS and Nke Watteco are launching the BeFlexi project, a Breton energy management project for buildings with the Smile Smart Grids label. Indeed, for the past 3 years, an energy monitoring experiment has been implemented in the high schools of Bruz and Cesson-Sévigné and, more recently, in Châteaubourg middle school.

The medium-term objective is to reduce the energy consumption of these buildings thanks to the mobilization of all the actors of the project.

The actors of the collaborative project

WI6LABS supplies and deploys the core network necessary for data recovery from the 25 water, gas, electricity, temperature and indoor and outdoor humidity sensors installed by Nke Watteco. The sensors are commissioned via the IoT network that WI6LABS has deployed for Rennes Metropole. Find our article on this subject here. Our company has also set up the Aliotys data collection and recovery platform. Aliotys can be used by all the actors of the project.

It is then ALKANTE who works on data visualization. The company transforms the raw data retrieved by WI6LABS into business data, in order to give them meaning.

ALEC is an association that brings together many energy specialists whose mission is to raise awareness and support building users in the energy transition. Shared energy advisors and project managers, such as Benoît Philippe, play a very important role in the BeFlexi project. Testimonial

>Can you explain your role in this collaborative project?

2 main missions: a technical part, with the implementation of comfort sensors and a consumption monitoring platform. On a daily basis, we analyse this monitoring to check that there are no drifts in heating. We also detect any water leaks and look for any consumption heel that would continuously consume in the building.

Our other mission is to support behavioural change. Our role, together with the educational team, is to make each user aware of energy: informing about the building’s consumption, thinking about the implementation of simple gestures etc…

The ALEC main aim being to publicize the BeFlexi project, we accompanied a class for one year in the realization of a communication campaign focused on the energy transition.

>Could you explain to us in detail the big “sweater day”?

Every year, in December, we organize a day during which we lower the temperature of the school by 1 or 2 degrees. The educational team and the students are invited to come with a big sweater. There is even a competition for the best Christmas sweater! The objective being to reduce the heating consumption, it is a fun action allowing to realize the impact that this reduction / decrease can have.

>What does digital technology bring to your business?

Thanks to the consumption monitoring platform developed by WI6LABS and Alkante, it allows us to locate in near real time everything that cannot be seen on the bills: water leakage, drift or consumption heel etc…

The data is not contestable, so we can determine the energy profile of the building. The platform allows us to test a heating modification or regulation beforehand.

And within the building, who’s involved with BeFlexi?

All users of the building are involved in the energy transition!

For the Brittany region, it is necessary to know the energies used in its high schools. As an actor in the energy transition, the region is putting in place the necessary means for change.

The high school manager needs to know the real savings obtained thanks to the BeFlexi project.

The technical officer is the right-hand man of the school manager. He is in direct and regular contact with WI6LABS in order to read the meters and check the building’s energy settings.

Finally, the teachers and students take ownership of the energy in their schools on a daily basis. All the protagonists (WI6LABS, Alkante etc…) send them a tool with a lot of data at their disposal as well as personalized indicators in real time.

The considerable advantages of the BeFlexi project

All BeFlexi actors and users have the same level of information on the subject. They are also all accompanied in the field by the CEFTA. The project strongly encourages the involvement of users in the energy transition with the implementation of an awareness programme.

This project aims to change the behaviour of users in the hope that they will acquire good energy practices.

But by the way, why BeFlexi?

FLEXI for…flexibility! In fact, every player in the project is involved, from the technical agent to the high school student. There is no such thing as small energy savings, quite the contrary. So if BeFlexi has approached you, we would be delighted to talk to you!