The smart home is here. The smart home reacts to sensors and can be controlled by a smartphone.

Power prices fluctuate through the day due to market forces. We asked ourselves, could we also program a smart home to be frugal, and respond to changes in energy prices?

We looked at recent power prices from ComEd in Illinois. Could we use machine learning to suggest the cheapest time to activate a home appliance (like a dishwasher)?

References:

• Rachneet Kaur and Clara Schaye and Kevin Thompson and Daniel C. Yee and Rachel Zilz and R.S. Sreenivas and Richard B. Sowers. Machine learning and price-based load scheduling for an optimal IoT control in the smart and frugal home. Energy and AI (2021).
• Ramavarapu, VP and Sowers, R and Sreenivas, Ramavarapu S, A smart power outlet for electric devices that can benefit from Real-Time Pricing, 2017 International Conference on Control, Electronics, Renewable Energy and Communications (ICCREC) (2017)

Press release: https://las.illinois.edu/news/2021-04-01/new-model-shows-how-make-smart-homes-more-frugal