Who we are

We are the  Smart Energy Research Lab, a consortium of seven UK universities and the Energy Saving Trust, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences research council carrying out a 5 year, £6m project into GB household energy consumption. Our website address is: https://serl.ac.uk

This is our communications website, providing information to interested parties. The privacy policy on this page refers specifically to the use of this communications website. (If you choose to sign up to share data with the SERL data portal as a participant you will be given full details about how your data will be processed in accordance with the SERL Data Governance Framework, GDRP and the Smart Energy Code.  If you apply to access SERL data as a researcher your application will be assessed by the SERL Data Governance Board to ensure that its proposed use of the data meets the rigorous standards required by SERL to access the portal). 

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Cookies

This site uses cookies which helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Site and also allows us to improve our Site. By continuing to browse the Site, you agree to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer, if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Site.
  • Analytical/performance cookies. These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our Site and see how visitors use our Site. These cookies help us to improve the way our website works.
  • Functionality cookies. These cookies are used to recognise you when you return to our Site. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences.
  • Please note that third parties may also use cookies, over which we have no control. [These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies].  If you do not want us to use cookies as we have outlined above, or if you change your mind after having consented to our use of cookies, you may delete and block cookies on this site via your browser. If you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) parts of our website may not work.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Third party access to your data

We don’t share your data with third-parties in a way as to reveal any of your personal information like email, name, etc. The only exceptions to that rule are for partners we have to share limited data with in order to provide the services you expect from us. Please see below:

  1. MailChimp:
    If you sign up to our newsletter, using our newsletter form that is hosted by MailChimp (on their server), your name, organisation and email address as well as the marketing reasons to contact you for, will be stored by MailChimp. You have to give explicit consent to all marketing means you want us to use to contact you. For more information on MailChimp’s privacy policy, please see here: MailChimp Privacy Policy.

Data storage location

Our hosting provider Bluehost ensures that your data is securely stored and GDPR compliant. For more information on Bluehost’s privacy policy, please see here: Bluehost Privacy Policy