This thesis's main objective is to conduct a comparison study between measured values and simulated results of a demonstrator, of the intelligent home energy management (iHEM) project. The comparison helps to validate the simulation. TRNSYS software is used for the design. In this study, only the thermal energy side of the project is considered. In which system-level (both domestic hot water (DHW), space heating (SH)) and component level (solar collector, gas boiler) are considered as the parameters to compare. An attempt is made to optimize both system-level and component-level simulation outputs with measured values by adopting measured boundary conditions as simulation inputs.During the comparison, the DHW loop simulation design is modified. The measured data were given as input files for simulation, replacing the estimated values used before. This is done to optimize the simulation output with measured data. In the space heating loop (SH), the simulated building model’s parameters were changed to optimize the SH demand. After the system-level validation and optimization, the component level comparison is carried out. For this, the simulation output of solar thermal collectors and gas boiler are compared with measured values. The solar collector loop in the simulation is modified to optimize the simulated results. The seasonal and yearly efficiencies of the collector have been calculated. Solar supply fraction and gas boiler supply fraction is also determined. For the comparison, graphs are plotted for three different weeks, representing the spring, summer, and winter months of 2018.The final optimized simulation output of DHW demand is 7% less than the measured value. Even after optimizing the Space heating loop (SH), the simulated building demand is 17% more heat than the demonstrator building. The simulation's solar collector output is optimized close to the measured values. The simulated gas boiler produces 19% more than the demonstrator system to meet excess SH demand in the simulation (including losses). The overall yearly collector efficiency calculated for measured and simulated values are 58% and 50%, respectively. The estimated solar collector supply fraction and gas bo

Denna studie undersöker hur ett smart energihanteringssystem påverkar användarbeteende och vanor hos användaren när det kommer till energianvändning. Med dagens fokus på energi och dess viktighet i samhället utvecklas tjänster som tillåter individen att övervaka sin energiförbrukning. Exempel på sådana tjänster är E.ON Elna™ och Tibber, där användaren kan se och övervaka sin energiförbrukning i hemmet i realtid. Tidigare forskning inom användarbeteende i relation till energianvändning visar att medvetenhet, feedback och egenkontroll är viktiga faktorer för ett förändrat användarbeteende. För att besvara studiens frågeställning genomfördes ett samarbete med E.ON och deras tjänst Elna™ där intervjuer utfördes med användare av Elna™-tjänsten samt icke-användare.  Studiens resultat visade att användningen av ett smart energihanteringssystem har medfört en positiv påverkan på användarens användarbeteende och medvetenhet kring deras energiförbrukning. Vidare visade resultaten från intervjuerna med respondenterna att ett smart energihanteringssystem har potentialen att främja energieffektivt beteende och öka användarnas medvetenhet om elförbrukning. / This study examines how smart energy management systems influence user behavior and habits of the user when it comes to energy use. With today's focus on energy and its importance in society, services are being developed that allow the individual to monitor their energy consumption. Examples of such services are E.ON Elna™ and Tibber, where the user can see and monitor their energy consumption in the home in real time. Previous research in user behavior in relation to energy use shows that awareness, feedback and self-control are important factors for a change in user behavior. To answer the study's question, a collaboration was carried out with E.ON and their service Elna™ where interviews were conducted with users of the Elna™ service and non-users. The results of the study showed that the use of a smart energy management system has had a positive impact on the user's user behavior and awareness of their energy consumption. Furthermore, the results from the interviews with the respondents showed that a smart energy management system has the potential to promote energy efficient behavior and increase users' awareness of electricity consumption.

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This thesis focuses on the design and implementation of a software tool able to achieve electricity grid optimal management in a dynamic pricing environment, at the residential level, and from a customer's perspective. The main drivers encouraging a development of energy management at the home level are analyzed, and a system architecture modeling power, thermodynamic and economic subsystems is proposed. The user behavior is also considered. A mathematical formulation of the related energy management optimization problem is proposed based on the linear programming theory. Several cases involving controllable and non-controllable domestic loads as well as renewable energy sources are presented and simulation scenarios illustrate the proposed optimization strategy in each case. The performance of the controller and the changes in energy use are analyzed, and ideas for possible future work are discussed.

This thesis explores home energy management (HEM), an emerging field for interface design and sustainability. Section 1 introduces HEM’s broader context. In Section 2, I review the literature surrounding HEM. Section 3 outlines the usability study on the ecobee Smart Thermostat, to evaluate the technology’s ease-of-use, and better understand users’ experience with current HEM technology. Section 4 describes a “Critical Making” workshop, where participants investigated HEM through material interaction and discussion. Section 5 describes and evaluates the potential design spaces gleaned from previous sections. In Section 6, I return to the literature to investigate key concepts underlying the design intervention for the chosen design space. Section 7 describes my design intervention and experimental evaluation. In Section 8, I present the study results, which suggest enhanced display labelling had a significant and directional effect on user-selected temperatures. In Section 9, I discuss these results, study limitations, and make conclusions and recommendations.

This thesis explores home energy management (HEM), an emerging field for interface design and sustainability. Section 1 introduces HEM’s broader context. In Section 2, I review the literature surrounding HEM. Section 3 outlines the usability study on the ecobee Smart Thermostat, to evaluate the technology’s ease-of-use, and better understand users’ experience with current HEM technology. Section 4 describes a “Critical Making” workshop, where participants investigated HEM through material interaction and discussion. Section 5 describes and evaluates the potential design spaces gleaned from previous sections. In Section 6, I return to the literature to investigate key concepts underlying the design intervention for the chosen design space. Section 7 describes my design intervention and experimental evaluation. In Section 8, I present the study results, which suggest enhanced display labelling had a significant and directional effect on user-selected temperatures. In Section 9, I discuss these results, study limitations, and make conclusions and recommendations.

Abstract Achieving the objective of a decarbonised economy by 2050 will require massive efforts in the energy sector. Emissions from residential houses will have to be almost completely cut, by around 90% by 2050. Home automation is a potential tool for achieving this goal. However, the environmental and economic benefits of automation technologies first need to be assessed. This thesis evaluates the impact of home automation for electricity management in the residential sector using environmental and economic indicators. To this end, a life cycle assessment was performed to evaluate the impacts of the manufacturing, use and disposal phases. The influences of end-user behaviour, household size and multiple levels of technological deployment were also investigated. A Markov chain simulation tool, built on the MatLab platform, was developed to assess all possible combinations of impacting factors. Dynamic environmental indicators were developed based on the ReCiPe method for aggregating the impacts of processes. All these indicators were then combined to form a single index based on multi-criteria acceptability analysis. The results suggest that home automation can decrease peak load, but that overall electricity consumption may increase due to electricity use by the actual automation system. The effect of home automation was more noticeable in larger households than in one-person households. In addition, use of dynamic environmental indicators proved more relevant than fixed indicators to represent the environmental impact of home automation. Within the life cycle of automation technology, the manufacturing phase had the highest impact, but most of the CO2 emissions originated from the use phase. In conclusion, the most important environmental benefit of home automation is reducing CO2 emissions during peak time by load shifting. / Tiivistelmä Vähähiilisen talouden saavuttaminen vuoteen 2050 mennessä edellyttää valtavia ponnisteluja energia-alalla. Rakennuksista aiheutuvia päästöjä on vähennettävä radikaalisti, jopa 90 % vuoteen 2050 mennessä. Rakennusten energiatehokkuutta edistävä automaatiotekniikka on yksi keino tämän päämäärän saavuttamiseen. Kotiautomaation kautta voidaan sekä vähentää energian kokonaiskulutusta että tasoittaa energiankäyttöprofiilia. On kuitenkin tutkittava myös, mitkä ovat automaatiotekniikan ympäristö- ja taloudelliset vaikutukset. Tässä työssä käsitellään kotiautomaation vaikutusta sähkön kulutuksen hallintaan asuinrakennuksissa käyttämällä ympäristö- ja talousindikaattoreita. Tätä varten suoritettiin kotiautomaation elinkaariarviointi selvittämällä laitteiden valmistus-, käyttö- ja hävittämisvaiheiden ympäristövaikutukset. Työssä tarkasteltiin myös asukkaiden käyttäytymisen, kotitalouden koon ja eri teknologiavaihtoehtojen vaikutuksia ympäristö- ja talousvaikutuksiin. Arviointi suoritettiin Markovin ketjun simulointityökalulla, joka rakennettiin Matlab-alustalle. Dynaamisia ympäristömittareita kehitettiin ReCiPe-menetelmää käyttäen. Indikaattorit on edelleen yhdistetty yhdeksi indeksiksi käyttäen monikriteeriarviointia. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että huippukuormitusta voidaan vähentää käyttämällä kotiautomaatiota, mutta sähkön kokonaiskulutus voi kasvaa automaatiojärjestelmän sähkönkulutuksen takia. Kotiautomaation vaikutukset ovat eniten havaittavissa suurissa kotitalouksissa. Lisäksi, dynaamiset indikaattorit edustavat paremmin kotiautomaation vaikutusta ympäristöön kuin staattiset indikaattorit. Automaatioteknologian elinkaaressa suurimmat ympäristövaikutukset ovat valmistusvaiheessa, mutta CO2-päästöjä syntyy eniten käyttövaiheessa. Lopuksi voidaan todeta, että kotiautomaation merkittävin ympäristöhyöty on CO2-päästöjen vähentäminen huippukulutuksen aikana siirtämällä kuormitusta toiseen ajankohtaan.