Parihaka's Sustainable Energy project

Five of our Computers in Homes families will be taking part in a sustainable energy project being set up at Parihaka.

The sustainable energy project will be looking at where and how Parihaka residents use power in their homes, and researcher Josh Curd is using the internet to collect data over a 12 month period.

Ten Parihaka families will have a small device installed, which will then send incremental data to a central hub for collection and analysis.  Five of our families agreed to be part of the project.  They were chosen because they have an internet connection, which is part of their Computers in Homes experience.

Four of the other five houses do not have internet connected, so CIH Champion, Charissa Waerea put in a call to our Computers in Homes tech, Ian Andrew, to see if he had a solution to the problem:  "how can information be collected from homes with no internet?"

He did!  Ian took a look at the devices that Josh will be using, the map of the houses and the distance from house to house, and reassured Josh that his equipment is capable of transmitting data from those houses to the Education House where the central control computer will be, without the need for those families to pay for an internet connection that they don't want.

The project, called Taiepa Tiketike Sustainable Energy Research, is a collaboration between Parihaka Papakainga Trust, Te Puni Kokiri, Massey University, Otago University and PowerCo.  The data collected will help Parihaka decide how to best provide power to their community into the future.

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