Internet of Things (IoT) Monitoring and Control for Smart Heating and Cooling in a Residential Building

With building sector accounting for 40% of current total energy utilization, notably within heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, the imperative to mitigate this challenge is evident. To address this issue and curtail energy usage in the sector, researchers are exploring various tools. One promising approach is leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) to optimize energy usage during heating and cooling of buildings. This work specifically investigated an IoT-based system for monitoring and controlling heating and cooling in Canadian residential housing. The simulation focused on a house from the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology, evaluated during the fall season using two control strategies responding to outside air temperature conditions and additionally introducing time-oriented temperature in the house. The results demonstrated that the house could consistently maintain a desired comfort level, irrespective of the outdoor conditions. Moreover, the developed IoT system accurately determined whether heating or cooling was required, efficiently avoiding simultaneous usage of both systems to prevent energy wastage. A comparison between the two control strategies revealed that the enhanced one exhibited significant improvement in energy consumption compared to the previous approach. Specifically, during fall, the IoT-based system using the improved control strategy demonstrated an average of 21% and 30% lower energy consumption for heating and cooling modes, respectively. Clearly, adopting wise control strategies proved to be an effective means of reducing energy consumption. In conclusion, this simulation effectively demonstrated the potential of IoT in monitoring and controlling household temperatures, leading to reduced energy consumption. However, it is recommended further field measurement is necessary to quantify the energy reductions when implementing this method for smart home HVAC systems.