Building data exchange

On 4 February 2016, Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency, announced the creation of the Building Data Exchange by the Digital Catapult centre.

The Digital Catapult centre was established to help businesses unlock new value from sharing proprietary data. The Building Data Exchange is intended to stimulate innovation and help build more efficient properties by making data available on the performance of buildings gathered over the last 6 years by Innovate UK’s £8 million Buildings Performance Evaluation programme.

The Building Data Exchange includes information for designers, developers and contractors on best practice and the potential pitfalls of modern, energy efficient homes, offices, shops and public buildings.

Innovate UK believe the data will be useful to those working in areas such as proptech, smart homes, the internet of things, future cities, wearable tech, data, building information management, retail, energy systems, renewables, fintech, sensors, materials and manufacturing.

The full data set was first made available for a 'hackathon' on 5-7 February and was then made available to the public as part of a three-year Catapult programme to encourage interaction between the construction industry and digital innovators.

Its launch coincides with the publication of 2 reports analysing data from the Building Performance Evaluation programme:

The reports suggest more needs to be done to ensure properties meet their targets on energy use and efficiency.

Simon Hart, Innovate UK's programme leader for the built environment, said: “Homes and offices are not performing as they should do. They are consuming up to 10 times the energy they should, and there are a multitude of factors behind that. The programme has amassed so much data that it’s difficult for constructors to process it. There is an opportunity now for digital businesses to create smart home or property technology that could be adopted by the construction industry and help it to tackle these issues.”