SMART HOMES The Energy Efficient Living
INTRODUCTION Energy is one of the most fundamental part of our universe. We use energy to do work. Energy lights our cities. Energy powers our vehicles, trains, planes and rockets. Everything we do is connected to energy in one form or another. The demand for energy has increased steadily over the years. As a result of the increase in the consumption of energy, concern has risen about the depletion of natural resources, both those used directly to produce energy and those damaged during the exploitation of the fuels.
Imagine how much energy you use every day. You wake up to an electric alarm clock and charge your cell phone. You take a shower with water warmed by a hot water heater using electricity or natural gas. What if you could do all these activities and still save more energy?
WHAT IS RENEWABLE ENERGY ? Renewable Energy is the energy that is generated from natural processes that are continuously replenished. This includes sunlight, geothermal heat, wind, tides, water, and various forms of biomass.
Surprisingly, all of the products, energy, systems and services for which we depend upon fossil fuels today can be acquired from renewable natural resources at our current level of technology. A number of renewable energy sources exists, each with their own economic and ecologic advantages and disadvantages.
Small Solar Electric System
Small Wind Electric System
Micro Hydropower System
TRADITIONAL METHODS SMALL SOLAR ELECTRIC SYSTEM
MICROHYDROPOWER SYSTEMS
A small solar electric or photovoltaic system can be a reliable and pollution-free producer of electricity for your home or office. Small photovoltaics systems also provide a cost-effective power supply in locations where it is expensive or impossible to send electricity through conventional power lines.
Micro-hydropower systems usually generate up to 100 kilowatts of electricity, though a 10-kilowatt system can generally provide enough power for a large home, small resort.
SMALL WIND ELECTRIC SYSTEM Small wind electric systems are one of the most cost-effective home-based renewable energy systems. They can also be used for a variety of other applications, including water pumping on farms and ranches,
HYBRID SOLAR AND WIND ELECTRIC SYSTEMS Because the peak operating times for wind and solar systems occur at different times of the day and year, hybrid systems are more likely to produce power when you need it.
EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES AND METHODS BODY HEAT
SMALL-SCALE THERMODYNAMICS
One of the busiest train stations in Stockholm has become an energy source for a building across the street. Jernhusen, a transportation real estate company in Sweden, found a way to create usable energy from the body heat of the quarter million commuters who pass through Stockholm Central Station each day. Heat exchangers in the Central Station's ventilation system convert the excess body heat into hot water. That is then pumped to the heating system in the nearby building to keep it warm. In practice, the system lowers the energy costs of the building by 25%.
Do you reheat your coffee in the microwave or dump old coffee to brew a fresh, hot pot? An easy way to save that energy wasted in re-heating is by dropping a few Coffee Joulies into your morning cup, and then rely on heat transfer to do the rest. These thermodynamic stones capture excess heat and then slowly disseminate heat back into the coffee, ensuring a hot (but not too hot) cup for a longer period ( twice as long ) time. Made from all food-grade materials, the stones are made from stainless steel, with a shell made of temperature-absorbing material.
Body Heating
Small-scale Thermodynamics
ENERGY, TECHNOLOGY AND OUR DAILY LIVES Energy has become an extremely hot topic for over the last couple of years, with reasons for our energy concerns ranging from environmental to political to financial. Despite differing reasons, it is clear that the solution to our energy problems is to transition from traditional energy sources to renewable energy sources, thereby reducing Clean renewable electrical energy generation systems are becoming increasingly accessible to the average homeowner either installed at home and connected to the grid
Clearly, poor household energy use has a direct relationship on energy bills. Though it's obvious using more energy cost more money, what's not obvious is how to correct this matter. Fortunately, with a few smart upgrades, it's possible to make your home smart, which is more cost and energy efficient. Smart Home is a residence that has appliances, security, lighting, heating, air conditioning, that are capable of communicating with one another and can be controlled remotely by a time schedule, from any room in the home, as well as remotely from any location in the world by phone or internet.
WHAT ARE SMART HOMES ? Smart Home is one home that provides its home owners comfort, security, energy efficiency (low operating costs) and convenience at all times, regardless of whether anyone is home. For example, the regrigeratory in a smart home may be able to catalogue its contents, suggest menus, recommend healthy alternatives, and order replacements as food is used up.
This integration helps to increase savings by controlling lighting, window coverings, HVAC, irrigation and by monitoring usage. Many home controllers have built-in monitoring systems whereby they calculate and log usage by all connected devices, giving the home owner heightened awareness and the knowledge to make changes as necessary.
An emerging important feature of a smart home is conservation of the earth's limited resources. More and more people are becoming aware of the ability to make their homes truly smart by utilizing home controllers integrated with all home sub-systems.
These systems can even be accessed over the Internet from anywhere in the world so the homeowner can adjust consumption any time, anywhere.
Thermostat lighting
Motion Sensors
Mobile Phones
Security Entertainment
ENERGY SAVING IN SMART HOMES OPTIMIZE ENERGY CONSUMPTION: Maximise your energy efficiency, and have the Miniserver run your dishwasher or washing machine only when electricity is being produced from your photovoltaic system, saving you having to buy from the grid.
SMART HEATING: Your heating learns how long it takes to bring a room to temperature, so it's heated precisely and doesn't consume unnecessary energy. HARNESS THE SUN’S POWER:
With just a push of a button, you can switch off all power-hungry standby units, and reduce electricity costs.
Harness the energy of the sun to bring your rooms to a comfortable temperature. In the morning, for example, the blinds will only come down when the room reaches the desired temperature.
UNCOVER POTENTIAL ENERGY SAVER:
ALL-OFF BUTTON:
With the statistics function you can record, visualise, identify and eliminate energy guzzlers and discover where there are potential energy savings to be made
No matter where you find yourself in your home, with a triple click of a light switch in your room, you switch off the lights throughout the house.
STAND-BY:
ENERGY SAVING TECHNOLOGIES NEBIA SHOWER SYSTEM Nebia is a fully self-installed shower system with an adjustable bracket and a portable wand that showers you with water like you’ve never experienced before. Nebia atomizes water into millions of tiny droplets with 10 times more surface area than your regular shower. With Nebia, more water comes into contact with your body, leaving your skin clean and hydrated all while using less water than a typical household showerhead. In fact, Nebia uses 70% less water than a typical household showerhead. TRANSPARENT SOLAR PANEL Ubiqutous Energy have created a fully transparent solar concentrator, which could turn any window or sheet of glass (like your smartphone’s screen) into a photovoltaic solar cell.
These transparent solar panels can be efficiently deployed in a wide range of settings, from “tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone. SMART THERMOSTAT & ELECTRICITY METER It’s the world’s first system to manage hourly energy price. It learns from your daily habits and informs you about your energy consumption and all the appliances are causing it. The myCACTUS then informs you how to use them efficiently. It lets you know about your energy expenses, and programs the heating usage to assure the maximum saving and comfort.
23’C
Thursday 8:00 am
30% Humidity
4 Apples 6 Bananas 2 Lettuce 1 kg Onion 1/2 kg Beaf Cereal
THE FUTURE OF SMART HOMES The future homes will soon become intelligent enough to distinguish between family members and guests within physical spaces and adapt to individual needs based on biometrics like fingerprints, body temperatures and even the rhythm of our own heartbeats. In just a few years, you'll awake in the morning to the sound of your alarm, and the hidden sensors in the room will know you're getting up. The lights will automatically, but gradually turn on and the thermostat will warm the rooms you're about to use — the bathroom, the kitchen and, a few minutes later, maybe your car.
The coffee will start to brew. You'll get push notifications about the weather. Your kitchen will remind you which ingredients you'll need to pick up on your way home from work and the items you'll want to include in dinner that night before they spoil. When you leave the house, you'll press a button via an app that will self-drive your car out of the garage. Right then, security measures will then snap into place. House doors will automatically lock. Appliances will switch to an energy-saving mode. When the house senses you're on your way back (using geofencing technology as your smartphone crosses a certain mile radius), it will get ready for your arrival — the thermostat will warm things up, the garage door will open as you pull up, and your favorite music will start to play when you walk in.
Shruti Bhatnagar