Designing for Healthy Cognitive Ageing Project: Room Occupation and Indoor Environment Data, 2021-2023

The DesHCA research aimed to develop designs that could support people as they age, including if they develop cognitive, physical or sensory challenges. As part of the project, we wanted to understand how people interact with their homes by measuring objective indicators. This was done by installing electronic monitoring systems in ten homes of varying ages and types, and interviewing the occupants about their day-to-day use of the home. The sensors measured temperature, light, humidity, air quality and occupancy (presence or absence of people at regular intervals). The data for each home were subsequently linked with weather data for each location, to allow examination of how occupancy and home conditions varied with the weather.

The archive contains monitoring data collected by sensors installed in ten homes lived in by older people. The sensors measured temperature, humidity, air quality, light and occupancy throughout the home over periods between 112 and 343 days. The homes varied in type and tenure, with a view to covering a variety of situations. Occupants were also informally interviewed, and key characteristics of the home and the household recorded using a questionnaire. Fieldnotes from the interviews and diagrammatic representations of each home with sensor locations are included in the archive.