Home energy management system for electricity cost savings and comfort preservation

The goal of the presented home energy management systems (HEMS) is to reduce electricity costs under a controlled reduction of comfort. Comfort covers here both the satisfaction of environmental states of rooms and the operating states of devices. Degree of Discomfort is a proposed measure for the dissatisfaction of comfort. A prototype HEMS was implemented. Simulations were conducted to study the potential cost savings from adjusting space heaters as well as the resulting discomfort. The cost reduction depends on the price condition and the consumer´s willingness to sacrifice comfort. In the extreme cases considered, the cost reduction can go up to 19%.