T2: How adding intelligence can dramatically reduce energy consumption –

cheaply

Pilgrim Beart

Today

• The size of the energy gap• Online Home Platforms• How can they help?• From Data into Information

“You see, we should make use of the forces of nature

and should obtain all our power in this way. Sunshine is a form of energy,

wind and sea currents are manifestations of this energy.

Do we make use of them? Oh no! We burn forests and coal, like tenants burning down our front door for heating. We live like wild settlers and not as though these resources

belong to us.“

Thomas A. Edison, 1916

About

AlertMe:• 32 people in Cambridge

– Mainly CU grads, mainly technical

• Backed by world’s largest cleantech VC’s• Online platform for home energy management

Pilgrim:• Computer Engineer by vocation• Entrepreneur• Board-level, chip-level, software, RF … now energy• “Engineering is the solution!”… now what’s the

problem?

Government push Consumer pull

…Utilities stuck in the middle

Government Push

• Energy Security • Climate Change

EDF

Fossil+Nuclear

Renewables

Transport

Other

Supply Demand

Gap

Home

4.6% in 2008

15% in 2015

29%

BERR 2008 SEWTHA

Consumer Pull

• Average UK household:– Disposable income £14,520

U-switch press releases, 6 June 2008

– Domestic energy bill £1,213 (8.3%) U-switch press release 26 Aug 2008)

• 90% of consumers concerned about energy billsOnePoll Survey of 1000 broadband users, Sep 2008

Utilities stuck in the middle

• £1bn/year towards energy efficiency– Otherwise windfall tax, or lose license

• Energy-saving: saturated?

• Energy is a commodity– Centrica pays 75% tax on supply– <50% of 2008 revenue was from supply

Insulation measureHouseholds with this

measure

  1976 2005

Loft insulation 51% 95%

Double glazing 10% 84%

Hot water tank insulation 74% 95%

Where does UK energy go?

Personalenergy consumption

Electrical things 18kWh/d

Heating 40kWh/d

Transport 40kWh/d

Householdenergy consumption

SEWTHA

“Approximately 10% of domestic electricity consumption is wasted by appliances left on standby”Programmes to reduce household energy consumption, NAO report 2 July 2008

3,300 kWh

20,500 kWh

Electricity

Natural Gas

USWITCH JUNE 2008

California

49 therms/household/month=588 per year= 17,000 kWh

Electricity

Natural Gas

5914 kWh

17000 kWh

http://www.pge.com/about/environment/calculator/assumptions.shtmlhttp://www.californiaenergyefficiency.com/docs/EEStrategicPlan.pdf

Abatement cost

Government White Paper on Nuclear Power, Jan 2008

OnlineHome

Platforms

And their potential tosave energy

AlertMe

you are online…mobile phone penetration : 116%

…your home is onlinehomes with broadband : 200m+

connects

AlertMe

you … …to your home

15

Coordinating the Smart Home

Online Home Platform

Engaging with the consumerInform and control the homefrom anywhere in the world:• Web• SMS text messages• Phone calls• Email• Palmtops (e.g. iPhone)• IPTV integration (channel or

overlay)• Billing integration APIs

At-a-glance in-home information

Real-time and historical information

Relevant Functionality

• Devices accurately measure temperature

• Report back minute-by-minute– Build-up temperature profile of whole

house

• Keyfobs detect occupancy– Immediately react

• Door/window sensors suspend HVAC– Particularly relevant to social housing

• Sensing room occupancy

How might online home platforms help?

3 examples

• Heating control – address the elephant!– 60-80% of total household consumption

• Whole-house metering– Second-by-second– Therefore Disaggregation (itemised energy)– Google Powermeter

• Per-appliance - control and monitoring– Smart Plug– Automatically reduce standby consumption

(night/away)– Run during off-peak– Better control of consumption

Benefits

• Government– Fastest, cheapest way to reduce carbon

• Utilities– Provable “negawatts”– Layered services for replacement

revenue

• Consumers– Save money, more comfort

From data into information

(Temperature and Occupancy)

vs. TimeTime of Month Time of Day

Presence

Temperature

At home:

Away:

Night:

(data dithered to show density)

Dataset 1011

Temperature vs. Presence

Tem

pera

ture

At Home Away Night

Averages, or everything

• Previous slides plotted only the average of all indoor temperatures

• But we can also plot:Min/Av/Max indoor data All data

Information we can deducefrom this data

Type of heating system

Storage radiators heat-up slowly using economy electricity at night, then cool

down slowly during the day

Central-heating (gas or oil) heats-up fast when turned on

Times when heating system runs

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

0 4 8 12 16 20

Boiler STARTS in the morning

Boiler turning ON to regulate heat

Boiler turning OFF to regulate heat

Boiler STOPS in the evening

Av indoor temps on 28 Nov for dataset 1005

Thermal mass/insulation

datasets 1005 and 1003

At night, the temperature in the house 1005 falls about twice as quickly as the temperature in house 1003 (compare trajectories from midnight to 4am, starting at 18C).

House 1005 House 1003

Seasonal effects

(from an earlier dataset)

Occupants Behaviour

Hour of the week

Sun SatMon Tue Wed Thu Fri

At home

Away

Night

dataset 1008

Gets up at 6:30am on weekdays

Out of house by

9am

Asleep by 11pm

Gets up at 9:30am on Sundays

Typical occupancy

Average "at home"-ness

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

0 4 8 12 16 20

Hour of Day

Average "at home"-ness

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0 4 8 12 16 20

Hour of Day

These occupants sleep at home.Home is often occupied during the day.

This occupant often sleeps away.Home often not occupied during the day

“young family” “free and single”

Is temperature well-managed?

At Home Away Night At Home Away Night

No.

Heating running even at night or when house is empty.

Temperatures high.

Reasonably.

Still opportunities to optimisehighs & lows.

Customer A Customer B

Over/under-heated rooms

Nan’s lounge is on average under-heated

Dining Room is on average over-heated

Example Messaging• Behavioural advice

“Dining room is on average 2 degrees above a comfortable temperature. Suggest turning down radiator to save ~£23/year.

“Rooms typically heated to 19C. This is 1 degree lower than average for your area – congratulations on being an energy leader!

“Your house loses a lot of heat at night, particularly in your hallway. Click here for advice.

• Automatic improvements“Your heating could turn on 25 minutes later each morning and

still keep your house comfortable. Estimated annual savings £37.

“Allowing the temperature to drop to 15C when you’re out could save you £103/year. Click here to do this.

“Click here to turn your heating down when you’re away – this year you would have saved an estimated £75 so far by doing this.

“You’ve been away for 2 days but your heating is still on. Reply with “off”?

Achievable CO2 reduction

• Behavioural– Hard to prove– Academic studies show 5-15%, even with primitive

display– Assume 5%

• Automatic– Heating 10% (17.5% of heating’s 60%)– Standby 1.4% (10% of electricity’s 20%)– Utilities can prove total negawatts

• If the 180m broadband users in Europe+USA used AlertMe, savings = 250 million tons of CO2/year

• Cost per MW = £368k– vs. £2.6m for offshore wind– vs. $3m for nuclear

ECI, Oxford

So what’s “T2”?

TED TalksRay Anderson“The business logic of sustainability”

1

So what’s “T2”?

TED TalksRay Anderson“The business logic of sustainability”

2

References• www.alertme.com• www.californiaenergyefficiency.com/docs/EEStrategicPlan.pdf• www.pge.com/about/environment/calculator/assumptions.shtml• www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/electric-metering.php • lightbucket.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/step-one-home-insulation/ • www.greenandsave.com/master_roi_table.html• www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/

ray_anderson_on_the_business_logic_of_sustainability.html• www.withouthotair.com/

Pilgrim Beart

That’s all folks…

• Thanks for listening– What can I do for you?

• Free kit to study home energy or behaviour?• Summer jobs?• Full-time jobs?

– What can you do for me?• Algorithms, ideas, technology, thinking, PR,

….

Pilgrim Beart