Energy monitoring and control using Internet of Things (IoT) system

The use of technology has become an essential part of improving lifestyle, work efficiency, and a catalyst for economic growth. The benefit of the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected nodes has been on a steep incline in recent years. This paper aims to research, build, test and implement a low-cost energy monitoring and control system using IoT devices. Electrical appliances (e.g., air conditioning units and overhead lighting) can be controlled and monitored using IoT technology from any place in the world. In order to accomplish this goal, a complete front-end to back-end system that includes a smart device application (iOS platform), a cloud-based database, an Application Programming Interface (API), and a hardware development is proposed. A small programmable specialized computing device (e.g., Raspberry Pi) for preliminary testing. This smart node was chosen due to familiarity, and its capabilities, such as general purpose pins and built-in Wi-Fi chip. The end goal is to observe energy efficiency by monitoring and controlling air conditioning appliances and standard overhead lighting units. These smart IoT devices allow for the usage energy data from each unit to be collected and stored in a Cloud-based database that can be analyzed and reported for energy conservation and analysis.