Saving Energy in Homes Using Wi-Fi Device Usage Patterns

Abstract

Reducing power usage in the residential sector is a global problem. Appliances used for space heating, cooling, and lighting are the primary sources of home energy consumption, increased costs, and CO2 emissions. Such devices are a significant source of energy wastage if they are left on and not being used. This article proposes a solution to reduce energy wastage in smart homes. The solution consists of a method to detect the presence of resident activities in the household based on Wi-Fi devices. It presents a model for identifying the Wi-Fi devices that are similar in usage compared to the resident's appliances using machine learning techniques. In addition to displaying the device usage charts, this solution helps in automatically turning off such appliances when they are not in use. A controlled experiment is conducted to evaluate the performance of the solution. The results indicate that this approach can significantly reduce energy wastage in the homes.