Home Energy Monitor
Concept
Lowering the energy demand to a minimum is the first step to take when aiming for sustainable energy supply. Of course, technological solutions can be found to be energy efficient, but still then, consumer behavior is of great influence on the amount of energy that is being used.
This consumer behavior can be influenced by creating an awareness of energy use by providing feedback. If a residential home is equipped with a tool providing feedback on energuse it can potentially save up to 10 or 15 %.
This feedback can be given via a display, showing the home owners what their energy use is and what they can do to make it go down. If the house is equipped with solar panels and energy efficient installations, feedback can also be given on these. In that way the home owner has insight in the workings of the house and thus feel comfortable about it.
HOME
Real time generated and used power
Health status of building
Estimated year balance
Insight in energy use
Status heatpump
Status Ventilation System
Status PV-System
POWER
Historical Feedback on Energy use.
SAVE
Goal setting
Tips for saving
INFO
Info on energy and installations
A show model with touch screen has been made which enables you to experience the full user graphical interface in an interactive way. The model is designed to fit in the door of a meter cabinet.
A test platform (below) is used to show how the Home Energy Monitor can be implemented on a cheap single controller. Used is a PIC controller with a LCD and touchscreen controller, a Zigbee wireless interface and EEPROM storage. It runs under FreeRTOS. An ARM version is in the testing phase.