An Open Solution to Provide Personalized Feedback for Building Energy Management

TL;DR

This paper presents an open framework for personalized energy feedback in residential buildings, utilizing data analysis and a flexible software platform to promote energy efficiency and demand-response strategies.

Contribution

It introduces the Mjölner framework for implementing and testing various energy feedback concepts in an open, customizable platform for residential energy management.

Findings

Data analysis revealed patterns in household energy usage.

The advisor widget effectively provided tailored energy feedback.

The framework supports diverse feedback mechanisms for energy savings.

Abstract

The integration of renewable energy sources increases the complexity in mantaining the power grid. In particular, the highly dynamic nature of generation and consumption demands for a better utilization of energy resources, which seen the cost of storage infrastructure, can only be achieved through demand-response. Accordingly, the availability of energy and potential overload situations can be reflected using a price signal. The effectiveness of this mechanism arises from the flexibility of device operation, which is nevertheless heavily reliant on the exchange of information between the grid and its consumers. In this paper, we investigate the capability of an interactive energy management system to timely inform users on energy usage, in order to promote an optimal use of local resources. In particular, we analyze data being collected in several households in Italy and Austria to gain insights into usage behavior and drive the design of more effective systems. The outcome is the formulation of energy efficiency policies for residential buildings, as well as the design of an energy management system, consisting of hardware measurement units and a management software. The Mj\"olnir framework, which we release for open use, provides a platform where various feedback concepts can be implemented and assessed. This includes widgets displaying disaggregated and aggregated consumption information, as well as daily production and tailored advices. The formulated policies were implemented as an advisor widget able to autonomously analyze usage and provide tailored energy feedback.