Internet of Things (IoT)-Based System for Smart Home Heating and Cooling Control

Currently 40% of all energy consumption comes from building services such as heating, ventilation and air cooling conditioning (HVAC) systems. To help reduce current energy consumption levels in this sector, many different tools are being investigated. One such tool is to use the Internet of Things (IoT) to target reducing wasted energy while heating and cooling buildings. This study examined an IoT-based system to control heating and cooling within the context of a Canadian residential housing. The building being simulated is one of the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology's house tested under the fall season. The simulation showed that the house could be kept in the desired comfort zone regardless of the outdoor environment. As well, the developed IoT system implemented in the simulation was able to accurately identify whether it should be heated or cooled, while not using both systems at the same time so that energy is not wasted. Some data processing was also done to estimate the energy consumption by each device and confirmed that the cooling and heating energy consumption rates were consistent with commercially available units. Overall, the simulation showed that utilising IoT was a viable method for controlling the temperature and energy consumption of a house, while future real world testing is required to measure energy savings by using this approach for monitoring and controlling heating and cooling systems.