User activity recognition for energy saving in smart home environment

In recent years, the consumption of electricity has increased considerably in the industrial, commercial and residential sectors. This has prompted a branch of research which attempts to overcome this problem by applying different information and communication technologies, turning houses and buildings into smart environments. In this paper, we propose and design an energy saving technique based on the relationship between the user´s activities and electrical appliances in smart home environments. The proposed method utilizes machine learning techniques to automatically recognize the user´s activities, and then a ranking algorithm is applied to relate activities and existing home appliances. Finally, the system gives recommendations to the user whenever it detects a waste of energy. Tests on a real database show that the proposed method can to save up to 35% of electricity in a smart home.