IoT for Energy-Efficiency: connecting a serious game

with energy metering in the EnerGAware project

CISTER – Research Centre in Paulo Barbosa, António Barros, Luís Miguel Pinho
Real-Time & Embedded Computing Systems (pmsba, amb, lmp)@isep.ipp.pt

Context EnerGAware Middleware

ENERGY CONSUMPTION PER SECTOR
(EU, 2011) • The middleware manages all services through core
• About 40% of energy modules, Gateway and Service Manager, to provide a high
Building Sector Transport Industry
consumption in EU is in performance, scalable infrastructure
houses, offices, shops and
other buildings 29%
• The Gateway’s validates and filters requests to avoid any
40%
• According to the EU Council, exposure of security vulnerabilities from the other
the greatest saving potential applicational and core modules
is in buildings • The Service Manager
31% aggregates Project Consortium Game Server
HOUSEHOLDS’ ENERGY CONSUMPTION application modules,
(EU,2011)
• Energy in residential homes: and distributes Demilitarized Zone
Space
04%
Heating 67% for space heating, and requests for load
14% Gateway
15% for lighting & balancing
Lighting &
Eletrical appliances Context Broker
15% Appliances
• The Context Broker (Pub./Sub.)
Water
67% Heating • Consumers have a key role publishes the
Service Manager
reducing buildings’ energy updated energy
Cooking
consumption metering to all server
nodes, game statistic
and weather info
Goals Server 1 Server 2 Server 3 Server 4

• The goal of EnerGAware is to promote energy efficiency, Results

enhancing users’ behavioural change through serious
games
74 houses in the current project pilot, in Plymouth, UK, with
• The project addresses existing houses, with an explicit the middleware managing their energy metering since 2015
orientation to the rational use of energy in buildings
The last performance tests indicate that the middleware
• In the IoT domain, the goal is to develop a high-
scales linearly, up to the limit of full occupancy of the
performance, scalable and interoperable SOA service manager server hardware capacity
infrastructure to connect energy metering with the
EnerGAware game
3%-10% of electricity savings. Earliest results of
EnerGAware Project houses that played the game show that in the period (in relation to
a pre-game baseline), electricity savings range from 3% to 10%
• EnerGAware is a serious game, playable in Android
devices, which rewards its users depending on their real
energy savings Conclusions
• Users take the role of the Energy Cat, a cat, • The EnerGAware middleware was proven to be a scalable
who has to keep an eye on the behavior of service-oriented system, and generic, allowing easy
his humans and correct multiple energy non- extension of different services
sense while ensuring their well-being (e.g.:
turn off appliances in standby mode) • Initial findings of the project are promising in terms of
energy saving and set the basis of an investment that
capitalizes the potential of IoT to develop solutions that
reduce the environmental footprint

This work has been supported by the European Union under the
H2020 Framework Programme (H2020-EE-2014-2015), EnergAware, grant agreement nr. 649673 CISTER Research Centre/INESC-TEC
ISEP, Polytechnic Institute of Porto
Rua Dr. Antº Bernardino de Almeida, 431
4249-015 Porto, Portugal
+351 228 340 502
www.cister.isep.ipp.pt
cister-info@isep.ipp.pt
facebook.com/cisterrealtime