A New Architecture for Reduction of Energy Consumption of Home Appliances

This paper presents the recent results achieved by AIM consortium [AIM, 2008] in developing and demonstrating a new information and communication technologies (ICT) architecture for modelling, virtualising and managing the energy consumption of home appliances. The architecture aims at fostering a harmonised technological frame for profiling and optimizing the energy consumption patterns of home appliances. The intention is to offer users a number of standaloneand operator-based residential services that will allow them to manage efficiently the energy consumed in households. To make these services possible the frame adopts a generalised method for household appliances management, which is based on an accurate modelling of operational modes of appliances and the ability of the home network to switch on or off some of their internal functions without limiting their control just to the active or stand-by states. As a pilot application, the appliances being considered for the first implementation of the architecture are: white goods, e.g. refrigerators, ovens, washing machines, dryers; audiovisual equipment, e.g. TVs, DVDs, Set-top-Boxes; and home communication devices, e.g. wireless routers, DECT phones, residential gateways, modems. The requirements defined for the architecture concern mainly usability aspects of power management functions, integration with the home network and service deployment. The final result provided by the project is a system with enhanced home network architecture, incorporating services for home appliances energy consumption monitoring and management and using a generic technology. The two major challenges are energy saving and the architecture’s long-term sustainability.