Tools to reduce domestic energy usage
DEHEMS
Background
As the technology partners on the Digital Environment Home Energy Management System (DEHEMS) project (funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for EU Research (FP7)), the Hildebrand team was tasked to look at how technology can be used to improve domestic energy efficiency and find a way to scale up its energy monitoring solution to the point where it is now practically feasible to monitor three million homes.
Solution
Hildebrand designed an end-to end-solution (hardware, data collection and management, user interface and social media overlay) which encourages people to reduce their domestic energy consumption. Uniquely in this area, Hildebrand’s solution delivers real-time collection and analysis of detailed energy usage.
Sensors attached to a home’s electricity supply transmit readings over a wireless network to a broadband hub. These readings are then sent to the central DEHEMS database. Users access an online dashboard that displays their electricity usage and performs analytics.
Working with the software laboratory at IBM Hursley, Hildebrand created a solution based on IBM Informix technologies that has the potential to support three million homes on commodity level servers.
Result
Enables real-time analysis of electricity usage for households, down to individual appliances, helping people make better decisions about energy efficiency in the home. People’s ability to compare themselves to other similar households gives them the ability, and motivation, to change their behaviour.
Designed to be used by people who are not necessarily technically savvy, the user interface provides an ‘at a glance’ picture of energy consumption.
The system can collect, store and analyse up to 50,000 data points per second – demonstrating scalability to three million homes and beyond. Delivers high performance on low-cost hardware by leveraging unique time-series data management technologies.
Related links
+ The DEHEMS Research Project web site
+ IBM Press Release: Hildebrand solves a key problem in smart metering research, 4 May 2010
+ Earth Times: IBM Teams With Hildebrand to Bring Smart Metering to Homes Across Britain, 19 May 2010
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