ThermalProbe: Exploring the Use of Thermal Identification for Per-User Energy Metering

Given the strong link between energy and behavior, sensing and metering per-user energy consumption is critical for understanding individual energy behavior and for customizing personalized feedback to promote energy-saving behavior. This paper explores the feasibility of per-user energy metering by proposing a per-user energy metering system that uses thermal-imaging and thermal-identification to track and associate energy usage among individual occupants in a shared working/living space. Each occupant wears a thermal tag that emits a unique temperature signature for user identification. The system introduces location-based per-user energy disaggregation that accounts per-appliance energy usage to individual energy consumer (s), i.e., Occupant (s) nearby activated appliances. We have designed, prototyped, and tested the Thermal Probe system. Results show that the system meters per-user energy consumption with an average error of 12.66%.