Published: Jan 19, 2022

save the earth with Home Energy Management System (HEMS)

The first thing that comes to mind with energy savings is to simply use less. And admittedly, the initial reflex – as a typical homeowner – is to use less air conditioning. Not that it doesn’t help, air-conditioners are believed to be power-hungry monsters that consume electricity by the truckload, which may be true, but they shouldn’t be singled out as the only perpetrator.

Far from it being a long-term, or even practical solution (now with working from home becoming commonplace), it has become increasingly difficult to abstain from high energy usage.

The charging of the tablet, smartphone, smartwatch, or laptop. Netflix on the big screen. That beautiful neon 24-hour LED light in the fish tank. Nintendo Switch. Even that innocuous-looking Nespresso machine. And the numerous other household electrical appliances that have become such a part of our lives, we barely even pay attention to – not when it comes to energy consumption.

In the interest of sustainability and cost management, NCS has helmed the new Home Energy Management System (HEMS), demonstrating high accuracy and minimal equipment requirements - both for personal home and industrial use-cases. Developed at the Singtel Cognitive and Artificial Intelligence Lab, this knowledge-driven data analytics system purposes a chief research goal – to leverage Adaptive Intelligence for Energy Management of Smart Buildings.

HEMS grants you the ability to profile energy consumption and forecast electricity market prices. Through its integrated forecasting module, it allows for analysis and recommendations – giving you the opportunity to select the most cost-efficient electricity price plan retailers have to offer.

What HEMS does:

• Estimates power demands from individual appliances
• Recommends cheaper and more suitable electrical plans
• Provides intel to strategically cut down on power-hungry appliances
• High accuracy in data analysis & forecasting
• Delivers long-term cost savings on your power bill

HEMS employs a smart meter to monitor and profile the power consumption of each household appliance. The NILM algorithm included in HEMS can estimate power demands of individual appliances from your household’s aggregate electricity consumption, simplifying a task that would otherwise be cumbersome and expensive - considering the large number of household appliances in the average home.

HEMS, through the attached smart meter, collects power consumption data, which in conjunction with data analytics applied to electricity market data, is able to provide recommendations for the most suitable electricity price plan among retailers.

Not just for consumers, HEMS also benefits producers of energy – prosumers  – specifically, those that have installed solar panels for energy production. HEMS integrates a forecasting module, which predicts Solar Power (PV) production. In conjunction with predicted electricity market prices – which are derived from the integrated forecasting module, HEMS can provide
recommendations to users – which include the time of day in which it would be the most cost-efficient to use specific household appliances or even recommendations as to when it is most profitable for energy to be sold back to the power grid.