Conserving energy in an automated home - Part 2

So far I’ve not touched on what home automation can do. As most home automators will be aware, there are a number of products that allow remote control of lights and sockets within a house. Combine this with sensors around the home, and a connection to the alarm system, and you have something that can reduce your power use by turning things off that aren’t needed. When you leave the house, for example, as soon as you set the alarm all the TVs in the house could be switched off at the wall and any lights extinguished. To balance this with security, lights could be switched on/off to provide the illusion of occupancy at night. This can still save energy compared to just leaving a bunch of lights on, by using one or two normally then occaisionally switching a few more on/off to give the impression of someone moving about the house. To prevent lights being left on in the day time, light sensors could be placed around the house to detect when a room is bright enough to cope without having the light on.

Other sensors could monitor energy usage. At the moment there are a few commercial sensors available that display energy consumption on a remote display. These work by surrounding the incoming phase(s) of the house with what’s known as a current transformer. There’s no direct electrical connection, so an electrician is not needed for the installation - although care must be taken to avoid touching any exposed connections! However, as far as I’m aware there are no similar products that can connect to an IP-based network and interface with a computer. A product like this could allow people to track their use over time, and perhaps even partake in competitions to see who can reduce their power usage the most.