Collected data
The Datenspende transmits only electricity-related time series of the devices you approved, together with their device metadata:
| Field | Example | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Pseudonymous household ID | hh_7f3a… | Randomly generated; no link to name or address |
| Device ID | dev_02 | Sequential number within your household |
| Device name | Kitchen plug | The device’s name in your smart home; avoid personal details in it |
| Vendor and model | Shelly Plug S | Nameplate details, as stored in your smart home |
| Device type | heat_pump | Assigned by you (optional, helps research) |
| Timestamp | 2026-07-14T12:05:00Z | Time of the measurement |
| Quantity | power / energy / voltage / current | Power (W), meter reading (kWh), voltage (V), or current (A), depending on what your device measures |
| Value | 1420 | The actual measurement |
In addition, there are optional details you can provide, but do not have to:
| Field | Example | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Postcode | 52074 | Coarse regional context; it never gets more precise |
| Country | DE | For regional context |
| People in the household | 3 | Helps put consumption profiles into context |
| Living area | 120 m² | Coarse size of the household, helps compare consumption profiles |
| Household name | Home | Freely chosen, only for your own orientation in the portal |
| Construction year of the building | 1998 | If known; relevant for heating demand (entered in the data portal) |
| E-mail address | – | Only if we may contact you about your donation; never published |
Account and consent
During setup, you choose a username and a password for the data portal; no name or e-mail address is required for this. We also record the time of your consent and the chosen scope so we can demonstrate it (details).
What is never transmitted
- Name and address
- Location data beyond the optional postcode
- Camera, microphone, presence, or motion data
- States of other smart home devices (switches, lights, locks …)
Personal data and pseudonymization
Even electricity data can reveal patterns of daily life (such as presence at home). We therefore treat all raw data as personal data under the GDPR: it is stored pseudonymized, processed under strict access control, and published only anonymized. How the anonymization works and which residual risk remains in the load profile is described under The Open Dataset. Details in the privacy policy.
Resolution and volume
The integration transmits measurements at the resolution your smart home records them, typically seconds to minutes. Per device, that is only a few kilobytes per hour.