Energy Management in the Smart Home

As the cost of energy will in all probability remain on an upward trajectory for the foreseeable future, minimising energy expenditure is of strategic importance for governments, commercial organisations and individuals alike. While the desire to consume energy efficiently may be universal, albeit for diverse reasons, realising and sustaining effective change in everyday energy consumption patterns remains problematic. Ubiquitous Intelligence technologies offer a particularly apt solution for enabling efficient energy management within the smart home. This paper describes a Ambient Intelligence infrastructure that enables the seamless capture, quantification and presentation of energy consumption patterns within the spatial and temporal dimensions of the home. Observations from an initial user trial are discussed.