New renewable energy allocation algorithms based on bin packing in a smart home

Abstract

More and more home owners fit their homes with renewable energy sources. Thus, to capitalize this, they are willing to install intelligent energy management systems to try to reduce their energy bills, which requires optimal use of energy. To deal with this, this paper presents two energy management algorithms, all based on the principle of the bin packing problem. The proposed solutions are built on prioritizing the use of renewable energy produced locally over energy provided by the main grid. A well detailed simulation was carried out to highlight the contribution of the implementation of this solution in a smart home located in Casablanca, Morocco, whose energy needs are from a daily approximation of the habits of the city residents. Moreover, a comparison between the two algorithms was made to showcase the benefits of each, and their difference.