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Abstract
Most utility installed energy meters are primarily intended to support a utility's billing function. They report only the aggregate energy consumption of a home or business over intervals as long as a month. In contrast, disaggregated energy usage data broken down by individual devices or appliances offers a much richer dataset that has the potential to inform and empower a wide variety of energy stakeholders from homeowners and building operators to utilities and policy makers. In this paper, we survey existing and emerging disaggregation techniques and highlight signal features that could be used to sense disaggregated data in a viable and cost-effective manner. We provide a summary of our new approach to electrical load disaggregation using voltage noise including a brief overview of our sensing hardware, classification algorithms, and evaluation in 14 homes. We end the paper with a discussion of current open research problems that will need to be addressed before disaggregated energy sensing can be widely deployed.
Keywords
Disaggregated energy sensing, Sustainability, Electricity, Water, Gas, Smart grid
Introduction
Imagine an energy feedback display that tells you not just your total power consumption and cost, but also suggests specific cost-effective measures to improve your energy efficiency. Such a display could report, for example: Based on your energy consumption patterns, you could save $360 per year by upgrading to a more efficient refrigerator, which would pay for itself after 21 months. The challen ge in this scenario is how to sense end uses of energy to provide feedback at the individual device or appliance level. Emerging smart meters promise a tighter temporal coupling between energy usage and feedback (up to 15-minute intervals), yet the focus is still on aggregate consumption, making it difficult for consumers to ascertain which devices or appliances are responsible for their energy usage. Disaggregated end-use energy data promises to transform the way residents, utilities, and policymakers think about and understand how energy is consumed in the home. Our research team, as well as many other teams worldwide, are working toward a new generation of electricity, water, and natural gas measurement systems that are low-cost, easy-to-install, and, most importantly, capable of providing disaggregated data on consumption down to the individual appliance or device from a single sensing point. Our vision is to provide high granularity resource sensing systems for homes and businesses that will
fundamentally transform how electricity, water, and natural gas are understood, studied and, ultimately, consumed. This article is focused on electrical energy, but we have also developed systems for disaggregating water and gas usage (see sidebar). All three of our systems share a common approach: they monitor side-effects of resource usage that are manifest throughout a homes internal electricity, plumbing, or gas infrastructure. Although our techniques should work in commercial and industrial sectors, we have so far concentrated on validating our methods in the residential sector, which in itself presents many challenges. In addition to the significant amount of energy use and CO2 emissions in the residential sector (Swan, 2009; Weber and Matthews, 2007), there is a higher degree of decentralized ownership and varying levels of self-interest and expertise in reducing energy consumption compared with the industrial and commercial sectors. Perhaps more compelling, however, is that energy consumption can vary widely from home to home simply based on differences in individual behavior. Indeed, it has been consistently found that energy use can differ by two to three times among identical homes with similar appliances occupied by people with similar demographics (Socolow, 1978; Winett et al., 1979; Seryak, 2003). We believe that disaggregated data presents an enormous opportunity for households to better understand their consumption practices, determine easy and cost-effective measures to increase their energy efficiency, and ultimately reduce their overall consumption. Even a 10-15% reduction in electricity use across US homes would be substantial, representing nearly 200 billion kWh of electricity per year. This is equivalent to the yearly power output of 16 nuclear power plants or 81.3 million tons of coal. Such statistics have led a growing body of scientists, utilities, and regulators to view energy efficiency as the most accessible and cost effective form of alternative energy.
feedback at opportune times (see Froehlich, 2009 and Froehlich et al., 2010). For example, an eco-feedback interface could provide information on the most convenient and cost-effective steps to take to reduce energy consumption based on the specific appliances and devices in a home as well as the way in which those systems are used. The feedback interface might make specific recommendations about retrofit solutions, appliance upgrades or focus on curtailing particularly wasteful behaviors. Disaggregated data could also be used to inform residents about malfunctioning equipment or inefficient settings (e.g., the water circulation pump appears to be operating continuously rather than being triggered by a thermostat). From a policy perspective, knowing how much energy is being consumed by each class of appliances or devices is critical to the development and evaluation of evidence-based energy-efficiency policies and conservation programs aimed at reducing capital expenditure on additional capacity (Sidler and Waide, 1999). Disaggregated data would allow utilities to accurately assess and prioritize energy-saving potentials of retrofit or upgrade programs. Equipment manufacturers and governments could compare energy measurements made under controlled test conditions to measurements under actual home usage conditions. This would result in more realistic test procedures and, ultimately, more energy-efficient designs as end-use cases are better understood. In addition to providing utility companies with an evidence-based method of evaluating their own conservation programs, disaggregated data presents opportunities for power system planning, load forecasting, new types of billing procedures and the ability to pinpoint the origins of certain customer complaints. For demand response, utilities would be able to improve the quality of demand forecasting by having better models of usage ( e.g., the number of households with energy efficient air conditioning). With real-time eco-feedback displays in the home, utilities could also suggest specific appliances to turn off or recommend other actions in order to conserve energy during peak load times. Finally, although some utilities currently employ different pricing schemes depending on usage (e.g., tiered pricing based on overall usage or time-of-use pricing based on when the energy usage occurs), future pricing models could take into account the type of usage and charge accordingly. For example, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, and lighting could have different pricing models.
Single-Point Sensing
In response to limitations with the direct sensing approach, researchers have explored methods to infer disaggregated energy usage via a single sensor. Pioneering work in this area is non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM), first introduced by George Hart in the 1980s (see Hart, 1992). In contrast to the direct sensing methods, NILM relies solely on single-point measurements of voltage and current on the power feed entering the household. NILM consists of three steps: feature extraction, event detection, and event classification. The raw current and voltage waveforms are transformed into a feature vector a more compact and meaningful representation that may include real power, reactive power, and harmonics These extracted features are monitored for changes, identified as events (e.g., an appliance turning on or off), and classified down to the appliance or device category level using a pattern recognition algorithm, which compares the features to a preexisting database of signatures. In its simplest form, the NILM feature vector may only contain one value: a step change in measured power to disambiguate between devices. More advanced NILM features may contain measures of power broken down by frequency and temporal patterns (for example, see Laughman et al. 2003). Leveraging recent advances in device and appliance power supplies, our lab has extended the NILM approach for electrical disaggregation by using high frequency sampling of voltage noise (Patel et al., 2007; Gupta et al., 2010). Voltage noise provides an additional feature vector that can be used to more accurately distinguish between energy usage signatures that would otherwise appear very similar. Most single-point sensing approaches rely on pattern matching, which presupposes the existence of a database of appliance and device usage signatures. For example, Berges et al. (2008; 2010) and Roberts and Kuhn (2010) are investigating how to build databases of these signatures for the NILM architecture. In the ideal case, these signatures would be similar across homes and thus could be pre-loaded on the sensing device or uploaded and examined in the cloud. In the worst case, however, a training example of each appliance or device must be produced per home, which would greatly increase installation complexity. We return to installation and calibration requirements in the discussion section of this article.
http://www.icontrol.com/
Extractable features
Sensing technology
Harmonics of |IAC|
current clamps or ammeters
Startup of IAC
current clamps or ammeters
|VAC|
voltmeter
Disaggregation level
device category
individual devices with mechanical switches any switched load (e.g., incandescent lights, resistive dimmers, heating) pattern matching on transient pulses plug-in anywhere
individual devices employing SMPS, or other electronic load controls continuously switched devices: CFLs, TVs, DVD players, charging units (laptops, cell phones, etc.) pattern matching on features of resonant frequency plug-in anywhere
CFLs, motors
Algorithm
clustering of Watts and VARs breaker or meter: inline ammeter with voltmeter
magnitude of harmonics
magnitude
Installation
breaker or meter: breaker or meter: breaker or meter: inline ammeter, or in line, or affixed in line, or affixed affixed outside outside outside (e.g., contactless, Patel et al., 2010) current clamps: hard inductive sensors: easy hard hard hard
plug-in anywhere
Ease of physical installation excluding calibration (very easy, easy, hard, very hard) Ease of calibration (very easy, easy, hard, very hard) Cost (including cost of installation) Advantages
very hard
very easy
very easy
very easy
very easy
hard
easy
very hard
easy
very easy
very high
low
medium
medium
very low
very high
high
stable signatures across homes and devices (i.e., enables central database of signatures, reduces per home calibration), independent of load characteristics
Limitations
I and V must be sampled synchronously, few devices with diverse power factor
limited to large limited to loads few devices requires per requires medium inductive loads with diverse, long affect VAC line, home calibration, sampling rate (50-500 that distort AC duration startup susceptible to requires fast kHz) line, loads must characteristics like line variations sampling (1-100 be synchronous motors and some MHz) to 60Hz CFLs
Table 1. This table outlines the various features, algorithms, and technologies used to disaggregate end-use energy data from single-point sensors. The AC subscript indicates that features were extracted using only the 60Hz component.
http://www.powerhousedynamics.com/
instantaneous power (Hart, 1992) such as radios and small fans because the overlap in the feature space is considerable. It is also important to note that although Load Monitoring categorizes devices, it cannot disaggregate two similar devices in the same home (i.e., lights in separate rooms). A significant downside of this method is the need to install sensing components that are capable of measuring Watts and VARs. Measuring the real and reactive power requires knowing the phase angle between the main line AC voltage and current. This requires a system to synchronously sample the voltage (VAC) and current (IAC) waveforms either at the meter or right before the breaker box. Most commonly ( e.g., TED3, NILMs, etc.) IAC is measured indirectly with clamp-type current transformers. Building codes typically require these devices to be installed by a licensed electrician. The process involves dismantling the breaker box and clamping magnetic sensors around the main power feed conductors. To gather electrical current features in a consumer-installable manner, we have developed a contactless current sensor that can be mounted to the outside of the breaker box and infers current from the magnetic fields generated by the feed conductors inside the box (Patel et al., 2010). Although this removes the need for professional installation and greatly reduces the complexity and safety concerns of the installation procedure, sensor placement and calibration become critical for high accuracy. In the future electrical current information could be provided by smart meters, but it is unclear when this data will be available and if the temporal resolution will be sufficient for disaggregation (current smart meters are typically configured to report consumption data with 15 minute granularity).
Figure 2. (left) Transient voltage noise signatures of a light switch being turned on. Colors indicate amplitude at each frequency. (right) Steady state continuous voltage noise signatures of various devices during various periods of operation.
Steady-state Voltage Signatures Due to their higher efficiency, smaller size, and lower cost compared to traditional power supplies, an increasing number of devices in the home use switched mode power supplies (SMPS). These devices, which include laptops, charging units, and TVs, exhibit continuous voltage signatures at the resonant switching frequencies of the SMPS hardware and are usually in the range of 10 kHz and 1 MHz with a bandwidth of a few kHz. With the wide variety of manufacturing processes and power requirements of SMPS devices, there is a minimal amount of overlap in the frequency spectrum making the resonant frequency an attractive feature for classification. A similar switching mode characteristic is also seen in Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) and dimmer switches. A CFL power supply employs the same fundamental switching mechanism to generate the high voltages necessary to power the lamp. Dimmers also produce continuous signatures due to the triggering of their internal TRIAC, which can be used to detect and identify the incandescent loads they control. In contrast to the narrowband noise produced by SMPS, a dimmer produces broadband noise spanning up to hundreds of kHz. Figure 2 (right) shows a frequency domain waterfall plot showing a variety of devices and appliances. When a device or appliance is turned on we see a narrowband continuous noise signature that lasts for the duration of the devices operation. The excitation of a switching device can be considered as a series of periodic impulses. The electrical lines of the household (i.e., the houses transfer function) act as filters, affecting the magnitude and bandwidth of the resonances and the corresponding harmonics. Thus, some features can be generalized across homes, and others can be used within homes to disaggregate similar appliances in different rooms, or used to track which outlet a particular mobile device is connected (see Gupta et al., 2010).
running on the PC. The PC then samples and conditions the incoming signal. Though we tested our system on a 120 V, 60 Hz electrical infrastructure, our approach could easily be applied to an electrical infrastructure utilizing different frequency and voltage ratings with little change to the hardware and no change to the software. For homes that have split phase wiring (i.e., two 120 V branches that are 180-degrees out of phase), the high frequency coupling at the breaker box between the two phases typically allows us to continue to monitor at a single location and capture events on both lines. To detect and classify the transient voltage noise, Figure 3. Our single-point disaggregated energy sensing system we employ a simple sliding window algorithm (1consists of a single plug-in module, acquisition hardware and the microsecond in length) to look for substantial supporting software. changes in the input line noise (both beginning and end). A feature vector of frequency components and their associated amplitude values is created by performing a Fast Fourier Transform on the sliding window sample. A Euclidean distance measure compares contiguous examples; when the distance first exceeds a predetermined threshold, the start of the transient is marked. The window continues to slide until there is another drastic change in the Euclidean distance, which indicates the end of the transient. The feature vectors that comprise the segmented transient are then sent to a support vector machine (SVM) for classification. Note that the SVM must be trained using 3-5 labeled transient voltage noise signatures from the home in which it is to be used. To detect and classify steady-state noise, we also employ a frequency-based analysis. The incoming time domain signal stream from the data acquisition hardware is buffered into 4 ms windows. Using Welchs method (1967), we create frequency-based feature vectors, which are then fed into our event detection and extraction software. When the system begins, it creates a snapshot of the baseline frequency signature. Thereafter, new vectors are subtracted from the baseline signature to produce a difference vector. Our feature extraction algorithm finds new resonant peaks using the difference vector and extracts quantities related to center frequency, magnitude, and bandwidth of the resonances. We build templates of known devices and use Nearest Neighbor Search in Euclidean space to classify the feature vectors into their source device or appliance. To evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of our approach, we have conducted a number of staged experiments over a total of 14 homes of varying styles, ages, sizes and locations. In two of these homes, we have also examined the temporal stability of voltage noise signals by conducting longitudinal deployments. To reduce confounding factors, we have thus far performed transient and steady-state noise experiments independently of each other. For transient voltage noise analysis we tested our system in one home for six weeks and in five homes for one week each to evaluate the system performance over time and in different types of homes. Results indicate that we can learn and classify various electrical events with accuracies ranging from 80-90% with recalibration being unnecessary even after 6 weeks of installation. We were able to disaggregate events down to single light switches, and were even able to distinguish between two different switches that had the same load characteristics (e.g., both switches were connected to a 100 W light bulb).
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We tested the steady-state voltage signatures approach in one home for a period of six months, and in six other homes using staged experiments in a fixed setting. Results indicate that devices can be classified with accuracies ranging from 89-97% within individual homes. This included the ability to disaggregate the same model and brand of LCD televisions appearing in the same home as well as telling apart individual CFLs. We also investigated the feasibility of using our method to train general templates for four electrical devices at one home and then classify the devices in six other homes. In five of the six homes we were able to classify the devices with 100% accuracy, and in the final home we were able to classify three of the four devices with 100% accuracy (the single failure case was a laptop power adaptor whose noise characteristic is dictated by the charging state). Unlike transient voltage noise, whose characteristics come from a random distribution, SMPS steady-state noise is predictable between similar hardware designs. In a follow-up study, we acquired 10 Dell 20 inch LCD monitors and created a single noise signature using one random monitor. We obtained near 100% classification accuracy when using a single learned model to a random installation of the 9 other monitors in the various homes. Our noise-based approaches allow us to identify when and what devices or appliances are used but they do not provide power consumption data. Thus, the last step in our approach is to sense changes in whole-home, aggregate power consumption and map these power changes to the identified events. Any of the discussed current sensing approaches allow for this (e.g., TED) including those which leverage contactless sensing ( e.g., Patel et al., 2010).
Discussion
We believe that disaggregated energy use data is considerably more valuable and actionable than solely using aggregate data at the whole-house level. However, there are a number of open problems remaining that need to be solved in order for single-point sensing to be a viable energy disaggregation sensing method in the future. Many of these open problems are well suited for the pervasive computing research community to investigate including the development of probabilistic-based classification approaches and new methods for ground truth labeling of energy usage data, as well as the calibration and training of the sensing apparatus itself. The cost and ease of installation, including any necessary training or calibration, need to be considered in terms of their likely impact on large scale adoption of energy disaggregation solutions. Although the ease with which a given disaggregation device can be physically installed is important, the ability for that device to either work out-of-thebox or with a small number of calibration steps is perhaps of even greater importance. We have pursued two complementary disaggregation approaches based on both transient voltage noise and steady-state voltage noise. Both techniques employ a fingerprinting approach for classification. That is, a database of labeled signatures must exist in order for the method to perform well. The calibration process requires that a user walk around his/her home activating and deactivating each device or appliance at least once (to create the signature) and provide some sort of human-readable text label for each device. Although initially burdensome, the calibration process would only need to be done once or when a new device or appliance is installed. In either case, mobile phone software could guide the user along this process and also serve as an interface for collecting text labels. Of course, this level of calibration is only necessary if the disaggregation signature of the device or appliance is different across homes. In the case of transient voltage noise, we have indeed found this to be the case. In other words, transient voltage noise alone is not portable enough to enable a shared database of signatures to take the place of in situ calibration. In contrast, we have found that steady state noise signals from SMPS and CFLs have a large degree of signal similarity across homes and devices (Gupta et al., 2010). This is likely because these signatures are largely shaped by the particular circuit design and electronic components of the device rather than the position of the device on the homes internal powerline infrastructure. Given this signal invariance, a crowd
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sourcing approach for signature labeling may be employed where signatures and their labels are shared across homes via a common backend database. Future work could also look at the feasibility of automatically clustering and classifying unknown signals in an unsupervised fashion. That is, a sensing system need not require a database of signatures and labels in order to perform. Instead it learns these signals over time and then acquires the labels at a later point. An interface could then present a list of these unknown signals to the homeowner and ask for a semantic label. For example, the ecofeedback system may state: the 2nd most power consuming appliance in your home has yet to be labeled, we think it is a hot-water heater, is this correct? In this way, the calibration effort is amortized over a longer period of time. Roberts et al. (2010) are currently in the early stages of evaluating their sensing system, which requires no a-priory knowledge of devices/appliances in the home nor does it require that each detected device/appliance exist as a model in its library. Although the sensing system can learn unique signals over time, it still requires user intervention to provide semantic labels for these signals. In addition to unsupervised learning, we are also studying the benefits of exploiting contextual cues and temporality of device usage (a strategy exploited by conditional demand analysis (CDA) and also investigated by Hart and colleagues). For example, many devices have predictable usage duration or are commonly used in conjunction with other devices. Many devices also have predictable states of electrical usage such as washing machines, dryers, and HVAC systems. Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) are well suited to exploit this sort of a priori information. DBNs also have the added benefit of seamlessly integrating multiple feature streams, such as those measured from voltage and currentessentially providing a high-level method to integrate all of the features mentioned previously. Finally, one of the primary research challenges in investigating energy disaggregation techniques is evaluation. Although computer simulation and laboratory-based testing are often useful in evaluating the feasibility of an approach, it is difficult to replicate the complexity and nuance of device and appliance usage in these artificial environments. The problem with in-home evaluation is the difficulty of establishing a method to acquire ground truth labeling about when and which devices and appliances were used. For our own evaluations, we have largely relied on manual labeling of electrical device activation and deactivations using staged in-home experiments with custom built labeling software. However, this approach is labor intensive, making it difficult to conduct experiments across a large set of homes. It is also unclear how well these controlled activation/deactivations mimic naturalistic energy usage. For example, some disaggregation techniques are affected by the number of appliances or devices that are active simultaneouslysuch dependencies need to be reflected in the staged experiments. The labeling of appliance and device usage could be handled by distributed direct sensing or hybrid methods that monitor power draw on each electrical branch of a home. Here, a sensor or a set of sensors are installed at each device/appliance location in order to monitor use. These distributed sensor streams are then used to evaluate the efficacy of the single-point solution (e.g., by comparing both outputs). Fully instrumenting a house with direct sensors on each outlet and for each appliance, device, and hard wired system ( e.g., lighting) is extremely resource intensive both from an installation and a maintenance perspective. It is also unlikely that any pre-existing direct sensing system would be capable of providing per-device usage information, so new direct sensors would have to be custom designed, which presents its own challenges. Finally, one would have to ensure that the direct sensors themselves do not distort the signal features used by the disaggregation algorithms ( e.g., by adding additional noise to the power wiring). So, although a direct sensing approach would clearly have benefits ( e.g., it could be used to collect naturalistic ground truth data over long periods of time), major challenges remain in making this practical.
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Conclusion
Most people are entirely reliant or becoming entirely reliant on utility-supplied energy, gas, and water for their fundamental activities of daily living (e.g., cooking, bathing, washing clothes). Yet few can accurately respond to questions about how they use those resourcese.g., what are the most energy consuming activities in one's home? When does it make economic sense to replace an old appliance with a newer, more energy-efficient model? Without accurate, disaggregated consumption information, it is difficult to make informed decisions about the easiest and most cost effective steps to reduce waste. In this article, we have argued that disaggregated data is crucial in closing the energy-literacy gap. The beneficiaries of disaggregated consumption information extends beyond residents to utility companies, appliance-manufacturers and policy-makers, who require knowledge about the end uses of energy in order to better evaluate their conservation programs, forecast demand, and establish new energy efficiency policies. The key challenges include both (1) how to cost-effectively provide accurate disaggregated consumption information and (2) how to best present this information to a homeowner in an actionable form. We believe that continued research into new methods for disaggregation, including our efforts in contactless current sensing and automated classification of loads based on transient and steady-state voltage noise signatures are important advancements toward achieving the ultimate goal of providing pervasive disaggregated energy information in the home.
References
1. Berges, M., Goldman, E., Matthews, H. Scott., Soibelman, L. Training Load Monitoring Algorithms on Highly SubMetered Home Electricity Consumption Data, Tsinghua Science & Technology, Volume 13, Supplement 1, October 2008, Pages 406-411. 2. Berges, M., Soibelman, L., Matthews, H. S. Building Commissioning as an Opportunity for Training Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Algorithms. Proc. of the 16th International Conference on Innovation in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), State College, PA, 2010. 3. Cole, A. I. and Albicki, A. Algorithm for non -intrusive identification of residential appliances, Proc. of the 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS '98), Vol. 3, May 31- June 3, 1998, pp.338 - 341 4. Costanzo, M., Archer, D., Aronson, E., & Pettigrew, T. Energy conservation behavior: The difficult path from information to action. American Psychologist (41).1986, 521--528. 5. Drenker, S. Kader, A. "Nonintrusive Monitoring of Electric Loads:, IEEE magazine on Computer Application in Power, October 1999, pp. 47-51. 6. Froehlich, J. (2009). Promoting Energy Efficient Behaviors in the Home through Feedback: The Role of Human-Computer Interaction. HCIC 2009 Winter Workshop, Snow Mountain Ranch, Fraser, Colorado, February 4 - 8th, 2009. 7. Froehlich, J. Findlater, L., and Landay, J. (2010) The Design of Eco-Feedback Technology. Proceedings of CHI 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, April 10 - 15, 2010. 8. Geller, E. S., Winett, R. A., Everett, P. B. (1982). Preserving the Environment: New Strategies for Behavior Change. 1982 Pergamon Press Inc. 9. Gupta, S., Reynolds, M.S., Patel, S.N. (2010) ElectriSense: Single-Point Sensing Using EMI for Electrical Event Detection and Classification in the Home. Proc. of Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) 2010, Copenhagen, Denmark, Sep 26-29, 2010 10. Hart, G.W., Nonintrusive Appliance Load Monitoring, Proceedings of the IEEE, December 1992, pp. 1870-1891. 11. Howell, E.K. How Switches Produce Electrical Noise. IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility 21(3), 162 170 (1979). 12. Kempton, W. and Montgomery, L. Folk quantification of energy, Energy, Volume 7, Issue 10, October 1982, Pages 817827, ISSN 0360-5442, DOI: 10.1016/0360-5442(82)90030-5. 13. Laughman, C., Lee, K., Cox, R., Shaw, S., Leeb, S., Norford, L., and Armstrong, P. Power Signature Analysis. IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, V. 1(2), Mar-Apr 2003, Pages 56-63.
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14. Lee, W. K., Fung, G. S. K., Lam, H. Y., Chan, F. H. Y., Lucente, M. "Exploration on Load Signatures", International Conference on Electrical Engineering, July 2004, Japan. 15. Leeb, S.B., Shaw, S.R., and Kirtley Jr., J.L. Transient event detection in spectral envelope estimates for nonintrusive load monitoring, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery 10 (1995) (3), pp. 1200 1210. 16. Marubayashi, G. Noise Measurements of the Residential Power Line. In the Proceedingsof International Symposium on Power Line Communications and its Applications (ISPLC), pp. 104 108 (1997) 17. Office of Energy Efficiency. 2003 Survey of household energy use detailed statistical report. 18. Patel, S. N., Gupta, S., Reynolds, M. The Design and Evaluation of an End-User-Deployable Whole House, Contactless Power Consumption Sensor. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems 2010 (CHI2010). 19. Patel, S. N., Robertson, T., Kientz, J., Reynolds, M., Abowd, G., At the Flick of a Switch: Detecting and Classifying Unique Electrical Events on the Residential Power Line. Proceedings of Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) 2007, pp. 271288. 20. Roberts M. and H. Kuhns (2010) Towards Bridging the Gap Between the Smart Grid and Smart Energy Consumption, Proceedings of the 2010 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Pacific Grove, CA, August. 12 pp. 21. Seryak J, Kissock K. Occupancy and behavioral affects on residential energy use. American Solar Energy Society, Solar conference, Austin, Texas; 2003. 22. Sidler O and Waide P (1999) Metering matters! Appliance efficiency 3 (4) 1999 23. Socolow, R. H., (1978). The Twin Rivers program on energy conservation in housing: Highlights and conclusions. In Socolow, R. H. (Ed.). Saving Energy in the Home: Princetons Experiments at Twin Rive rs (pp. 2-62). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company. 24. Swan, Lukas G., Ugursal, V. Ismet Modeling of end-use energy consumption in the residential sector: A review of modeling techniques, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 13, Issue 8, October 2009, Pages 1819-1835, ISSN 1364-0321, DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2008.09.033. 25. Weber, Christopher L., Matthews, H. Scott. Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint, Ecological Economics, Volume 66, Issues 2-3, 15 June 2008, Pages 379-391, ISSN 0921-8009, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.09.021 26. Welch, P. D. The Use of Fast Fourier Transform for the Estimation of Power Spectra: A Method Based on Time Averaging Over Short, Modified Periodograms. IEEE Trans. Audio & Electroacoust., Volume AU-15, p. 70-73. 1967 27. Winett, R. A., Neale, M. S., & Grier, H. C. (1979). The effects of self-monitoring and feedback on residential electricity consumption: Winter. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1979, 12, 173-184.
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trillion gallons of water are wasted in US households alone (EPA, 2009). To better inform residents about their water consumption and to provide automatic leak detection, we have developed HydroSense, a pressure-based sensing solution capable of tracking water usage down to the fixture level from a single installation point (Froehlich et al., 2009). HydroSense works by identifying the unique pressure wave signatures generated when fixtures are opened or closed. This pressure wave is propagated throughout the homes plumbing infrastructure, thus enabling the single-point sensing approach. So far, we have tested HydroSense in twelve homes and three apartments by performing upwards of 5,000 controlled experimental trials ( e.g., by repeatedly opening and closing each water fixture in the home). Our results indicate that we can classify water usage down to the individual valve level with 70-95% accuracy. Unlike electricity and water usage, which are often the result of direct human actions such as watching TV or taking a shower, gas usage is dominated by automated systems like the furnace and hot water heater. This disconnect between activity and consumption leads to a lack of consumer understanding about how gas is used in the home and, in particular, which appliances are most responsible for this usage (Kempton and Layne, 1994). This can lead to wasteful behavior (e.g., heating empty rooms) and using inefficient settings ( e.g., unreasonably high thermostat settings on the hot water heater). Our gas sensing approach uses a single sensor that analyzes the acoustic response of a home's government mandated gas regulator, which provides the unique capability of sensing both the individual appliance at which gas is currently being consumed as well as an estimate of the amount of gas flow. Our approach provides a number of appealing features including the ability to be easily and safely installed without the need of a professional. We tested our solution in nine different homes and initial results show that GasSense has an average accuracy of 95% in identifying individual appliance usage. Finally, it is interesting to note how all three resources are deeply interconnected. One of the largest uses of water is in electricity production (Thirwell et al., 2007). For example, to produce one kilowatt-hour of electricity requires 140 liters of water for fossil fuels and 205 liters for nuclear power plants (ibid). Large amounts of energy (both electricity and gas) are also used to treat, pump, distribute, and heat water. Thus, our energy infrastructure is intrinsically tied to water and vice versa: water is used to produce the electricity that is used to supply consumable water.
Sidebar References
1. Brandes, O.M., At a Watershed: Ecological Governance and Sustainable Water Management in Canada. Journal of Environmental Law and Practice, 2005. 16(1): p. 79- 97. 2. Cohn, G., Gupta, S., Froehlich, J., Larson, E., and Patel, S.N. (2010) GasSense: Appliance-Level, Single-Point Sensing of Gas Activity in the Home. In the Proceedings of Pervasive 2010, (May 17-20, Helsinki, Finland), pp. 265282. 3. Environmental Protection Agency, WaterSense pubs/fixleak.html, last accessed 03/31/2010. (2009). Fix a Leak. http://www.epa.gov/watersense/
4. Froehlich, J., Larson, E., Campbell, T., Haggerty, C., Fogarty, J., and Patel, S. (2009) HydroSense: Infrastructure-Mediated Single-Point Sensing of Whole-Home Water Activity. Proceedings of UbiComp 2009, Orlando, Florida, September 30th October 3rd, 2009. 5. Kempton, W. and Layne, L.: The Consumers Energy Analysis Environment. Energy Policy, vol. 22, issue 10, pp. 857 -866 (1994) 6. Thirwell, G. M., Madramootoo, C. A., Heathcote, I. W., Energy-water Nexus: Energy Use in the Municipal, Industrial, and Agricultural Water Sectors. Canada US Water Conference, Washington D.C., October 2nd, 2007. 7. Vickers, A. (2001). Handbook of Water Use and Conservation: Homes, Landscapes, Industries, Businesses, Farms (Hardcover), WaterPlow Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2001)
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Author Bios
Jon Froehlich is a PhD candidate and Microsoft Research Graduate Fellow in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) at the University of Washington co-advised by James Landay and Shwetak Patel. He was recently selected as the UW College of Engineering Graduate Student Innovator of the Year for 2010. His dissertation is on promoting sustainable behaviors through automated sensing and feedback technology. Jon received his MS in Information and Computer Science specializing in analytic visualizations from the University of California, Irvine under the advisement of Paul Dourish. Contact him at jonfroehlich@gmail.com.
Eric Larson is a senior PhD student in the laboratory of Ubiquitous Computing at the University of Washington and is advised by Shwetak Patel. His main research area is supported signal processing in ubiquitous computing applications, especially for healthcare and environmental sustainability applications. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater in 2006 and 2008 respectively where he specialized in image processing and perception under the advisement of Damon Chandler. He is active in signal processing education and is a member of IEEE and HKN. Contact him at eclarson@uw.edu.
Sidhant Gupta is a PhD student at University of Washington's Computer Science & Engineering department specializing in Ubiquitous Computing. His current research focuses on developing novel sensing technologies for the home that are use minimal sensors and building innovative electro-mechanical haptic feedback interfaces. Sidhant graduated with a M.Sc degree in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2009 specializing in OS and embedded systems. Contact him at sidhant@uw.edu.
Gabe Cohn is a Ph.D. student in the Ubiquitous Computing Lab at the University of Washington. He received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2009, where he specialized in embedded systems and digital VLSI. He is currently pursuing his PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle and is advised by Shwetak Patel. His research involves designing customized hardware for ubiquitous computing applications. In particular, he is focused on enabling new ultra-low-power sensing solutions for the home, and creating interesting new human-computer interfaces. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM. Contact him at gabecohn@uw.edu; www.gabeacohn.com.
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Matthew S. Reynolds is an assistant professor at Duke University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests include the physics of sensors and actuators, RFID, and signal processing. He received the S.B. (1998), M.Eng. (1999), and Ph.D. (2003) degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a co-founder of the RFID systems firm ThingMagic Inc and the energy conservation firm USenso, Inc. He is a member of the Signal Processing and Communications and Computer Engineering Groups at Duke, as well as the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. Contact him at matt.reynolds@duke.edu.
Shwetak N. Patel is an Assistant Professor in the departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington. His research interests are in the areas of Sensor-enabled Embedded Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, and User Interface Software and Technology. He is particularly interested in developing easy-to-deploy sensing technologies and approaches for location, activity recognition, and energy monitoring applications. Dr. Patel was also the co-founder of Usenso, Inc., a recently acquired demand side energy monitoring solutions provider. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008 and B.S. in Computer Science in 2003. He was also the Assistant Director of the Aware Home Research Initiative at Georgia Tech. Dr. Patel was a TR-35 award recipient in 2009. Contact him at shwetak@cs.washington.edu.
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