Context-Aware Smart Home Energy Manager Research Project

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is currently conducting research into a context-aware smart home energy manager (CASHEM).

Project Description

This project seeks to develop a CASHEM system able to identify the contexts that affect operation of home appliances, configure a context-driven appliance convenience of service model that correlates the different conditions to the energy consumption, and dynamically schedule the appliances under the stated conditions. The CASHEM will monitor inputs from multiple sources including:

Occupancy sensors
Indications from the security system
Position of light switches
Hot water consumption
Appliance activity (e.g., the operation of the dishwasher)
Time of day to create a hypothesis of the current state and to build patterns.

Project Partners

Research is being undertaken by DOE, Honeywell International, Inc., Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions, Whirlpool Corporation, Pentair, Inc., and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Project Goals

The goal of this project is to create a system that dynamically schedules major home appliances according to conditions and homeowner convenience of service preferences, monitors and analyzes energy consumption, recommends further energy saving actions, and engages or motivates the homeowner to adopt those recommendations.

Benefits and Impacts

By automating energy saving actions in combination with adaptive techniques while focusing on large energy consuming appliances—such as space conditioning, water heaters, and pools—savings between 16% and 20 % of energy consumed based on the homeowner and "comfort" tolerance are expected.

Contact Information

Yana Rasulova
Yana.rasulova@go.doe.gov