ZigBee wireless area network for home automation and energy management: Field trials and installation approaches

In the future smart grid the consumer will play an important contribution to the quality of the electricity transmission and delivery and to the reduction of the grid carbon dioxide emissions, by applying a conscious behaviour to their energy consumption. But, to be able to accomplish that, the consumers need to know and control their activity so they can act upon the available information. Several works have been done to study and create different technologies for home automation and energy management, but few works exist to study the actual implementation and installation procedures of such technologies and the creation of kits and templates. Hence, this paper provides novel field trials in home automation and energy management with open source solutions and the resulting analyses, offering a template for a universal kit creation. The kit modules installation configurations, their pros and cons, minimum hardware and conditions that must be taken into consideration for adequate implementation, are provided.