Multiple Sensor Based Autonomous Monitoring and

Control for Energy Efficiency

Liyanage C. De Silva1,2, Titty Dewana1, M. Iskandar Petra1,

and G. Amal Punchihewa2
1
Faculty of Science, University of Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam
liyanagecd@yahoo.co.nz, merce5964@yahoo.com
2
School of Engineering and Advanced Technology (SEAT), Massey University,
Palmerston North, New Zealand
L.desilva@massey.ac.nz, g.a.punchihewa@massey.ac.nz

Abstract. Recently the importance of autonomous monitoring has become an

essential part of the society. Autonomous monitoring and control in a home
environment can lead to energy savings. Also autonomous monitoring can serve
as an alerting mechanism when something is out of the norm so that the
controlling mechanism can rectify the problem. In this paper we present a
system we developed using multiple sensors for autonomous monitoring and
control with relatively low cost components. The sensors we integrated together
in to one central operation unit can monitor room temperature, humidity, human
motion activity etc. We present a prototype implementation of an energy
efficient home environment using our proposed centralized monitoring
platform. Using a sample scenario we show that the energy consumption in a
smart home is about 15kWh while that of a normal home is about 35kWh.

Keywords: Multiple Sensors, Energy Efficiency, Autonomous Monitoring,

Smart Homes, Sensor Integration, Environment Monitoring.

1 Introduction
Use of multiple sensors for autonomous monitoring and control is applicable in a
wide area including the environment monitoring, health monitoring, commerce and
industry. In fact many sensors are used in our home environment such as inside
refrigerators to control inner temperature, in the water pump assembly to control the
water flow etc. However one should note that the number of sensors used in a motor
car is much more than one might see in their own home. This leads us to the thinking
of a Smart Home with multiple sensors to monitor and control the home environment.
In autonomous monitoring and control of a home environment one may employ
many sensors to continuously monitor the activities in the home. There are various
techniques available which can be used in smart homes such as temperature and
humidity measurement and light intensity measurement etc.
Due to the ever increasing energy price and scarcity of the resources the cost of
energy bills plays an important role in our household expenditure. Hence we need to
find a way of constantly monitor the usage and reduce the waste. Energy is used to
operate most of the appliances such as cooling, heating, lighting, and many more.

P. Vadakkepat et al. (Eds.): FIRA 2010, CCIS 103, pp. 361–368, 2010.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
362 L.C. De Silva et al.

There are many ways to reduce the energy consumption they use. One of the best
ways is to use sensor technology which helps to monitor and control the energy usage
as well as make the user aware of the usage using display technologies or graphical
user interfaces (which will help the user to observe the energy usage and control)
which in turn persuades them to change the pattern of their energy usage.

2 Related Research
Autonomous monitoring and control has been used in many research works for
monitoring environmental conditions using smart sensors. The research work presented
by De Silva et al. 1 is a technique based on smart monitoring, control and
communication to improve energy efficiency and provide eldercare. In their research,
they also looked into the use of multiple of different sensors to monitor activities in a
smart home and the result of the monitoring was used to control the home environment
to reduce energy usage and provide eldercare. The application of the smart monitoring
to a prototype system of audio based sensor was also presented in the paper.
Chao Chen et al. 2 proposed a monitoring system to monitor human movements at
a home environment using wearable wireless sensors. This project designed and
developed a wearable wireless sensor system called a waist-mounted tri-axial
accelerometer unit to obtain data concerning physical activities of a person in need of
medical care. The unit was used to record human movements. And the Sampled data
are transmitted using an IEEE 802.15.4 wireless transceiver to a data logger unit and
passed to a PC for analysis.
In the paper by Cameron Lach et al. 3 the authors proposed a graphical user
interface to monitor and control home appliances to reduce energy usage. They have
presented data from their prototype implementation.
Diane J. Cook et al. 4 proposed a technique of monitoring environmental
conditions in a home called MavHome (Managing An Intelligent Versatile Home).
The aim of the MavHome project was to create a home that acts as an intelligent
agent. In their paper, they introduced architecture for an intelligent home and
demonstrated the effectiveness of some monitoring and controlling algorithms on
observed smart home data.
In the papers 5 and 6 the authors describe human activity detection techniques in
home environments. This information can be used for home automation to control the
level of lighting used at a given time.
In the literature review we looked at many research work that are being carried out
to provide better insight and awareness towards the methods of increasing the quality
of the daily life at the same time addressing the energy efficiency. In this paper we
propose a centralized multiple sensor based platform for environment monitoring to
reduce the energy usage in a typical home.

3 Autonomous Monitoring for Energy Efficiency

In a given home there are many appliances. But all of them run independently and at
present no effort is being used to centralize the monitoring of their operation.
Appliances such as air conditioning systems, heating systems require a large amount
of energy to run but they tend to operate irrespective of the activities of the
householders. This makes the homes one of the environments that waste precious
 Multiple Sensor Based Autonomous Monitoring and Control for Energy Efficiency 363

energy. Hence the design of smart home environments using sensor network has a
great potential to reduce the energy consumption by actively monitoring the
household activities and controlling the related appliances.
If you have an active sensor network at home they can monitor and automatically
control the appliances. For example the motion sensors can sense human presence and
it can allow keeping the appliances for example television, air conditioner running as
desired. Then when the sensor does not detect movement for long time within the
detection area, it will start to power down and reduce energy wastage. Also motion
sensors can help in saving energy by switching off the lights if no one passes by the
sensor or detection zone.
Another advantage of a centralized system is that it is a way to keep occupants
aware of their energy efficiency. Laptop screen or mobile phone could set up in a
home to track electricity use, water use and other metrics and fed into an online
interface or text messages can be sent via mobile phones. The occupants will get
updates on their home's energy usage, children’s and elderly conditions at any time.
Hence if you have a sensor driven smart home people are constantly made aware of
the energy they're using and are more conscious about their affect on the environment.

4 Motion and Temperature Sensor Based Air-Conditioner Control

Among the home appliances air conditioners are the equipments those contribute to
high energy consumptions. In our platform the air conditioner system was designed
and programmed in such a way that it can maintain temperatures given to each room
in a house and able to improve the energy efficiency by monitoring the availability of
occupants in each room by using distance measuring sensors (PING sensors 7) in
addition to temperature sensors. The controlling steps of the air conditioner are given
in the flow chart in the Figure 1.

ACsystem

No
Yes
If PINGdetectspeopleenter the room

Check the room ACswitch off

temperature

If Room is cool If Room is warm

Wait
until the Acswitch on
room
warms
No Yes
up
Is the roomreacheslow
temperature threshold?

Is the roomreacheshigh
Yes
temperature threshold?
No

ACTURNS off

Fig. 1. Motion sensor and temperature sensor based air-conditioner control

364 L.C. De Silva et al.

Air conditioning is the process of maintaining comfortable conditions inside a

closed space. In country like Brunei Darussalam, the surrounding temperature is
higher and hence air-conditioners act as a cooler to keep the room cool. Figures 2 and
3 show our prototype implementation of a distance measuring sensor and temperature
sensor based air-conditioner control arrangement.

Fig. 2. The temperature sensing and controlling circuits of an Air-conditioner operated by a pair
of distance measuring sensors

Fig. 3. Two PING type distance measuring sensors to detect enter and exit of a person to the
Smart Home

5 Motion Sensors Based Lighting Control

Although lighting consumes less energy, similar to the air-conditioning control we
can control the lighting in the house using sensors. For this purpose we have used
Passive Infra-Red (PIR) Sensors 7. The PIR sensors are motion detectors that senses
infrared radiation emitted by any warm-bodied object through a Fresnel lens and
infrared-sensitive element. Infrared Radiation is the electromagnetic spectrum that has
wavelength longer than visible light and it is invisible but it can be detected. Human
body and animals that generate infrared radiation is maximum at a wavelength of
9.4µm. Infrared radiation will not pass through types of material such as window
glass and plastic. However it will penetrate through material with some attenuation