EnRoute: An energy router for energy-efficient buildings

The US Department of Energy estimates that 73% of electricity usage is consumed by buildings. The Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems account for almost 50% of the total energy budget. Demand-based pricing for commercial buildings makes it necessary for them to reduce power consumption during peak hours, when electricity is priced at a higher rate. Peaks in electricity demand occur when multiple systems are simultaneously consuming electricity. In this paper, we look at the problem of energy load management for commercial buildings and propose En-Route, a wireless Energy Router platform for control and scheduling of energy delivery to minimize peak electricity consumed by buildings. We have built a scaled model of a building, which generates HVAC dynamics that match an actual building. The Energy Router monitors the temperature, humidity and power consumption in different zones of the building in real-time. It then runs an “energy aware” algorithm that schedules HVAC systems based on the operating conditions of each zone to minimize the peak power consumption of the building.