Energy-saving systems in smart homes are becoming increasingly important

Under the guidance of carbon neutrality policies, people’s lives are moving towards low-carbon development. This requires many devices in daily life to be environmentally friendly, and in the field of smart homes, it is necessary for products to be able to achieve energy-saving and environmentally friendly functions, which is currently an important aspect of smart homes.

How does a smart home achieve energy efficiency?

Every summer, the hot climate makes many people choose to stay indoors because of the cool air conditioning. However, if you are at home, while the air conditioning brings coolness, it also creates some concerns about whether it will lead to high electricity bills.

But the reason why smart homes are called “smart” is because they can make appropriate self-adjustments based on external environments. A prominent example is sensors. In many residential building hallways, lights are installed to illuminate the stairwell at night. However, if they are always on, or controlled through fixed switches, it will inevitably produce some waste.

Therefore, many hallways have added sound sensors, light sensors, etc., to determine whether it is daytime outside and whether people are passing by.

Nowadays, in smart homes, both human sensors and daylight sensors are commonly used. These sensors not only improve the efficiency of lighting usage but also greatly reduce energy consumption.

For example, many people cannot distinguish the difference between 90% and 100% brightness of lights. However, reducing all the lights in the house by 10% can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 pounds per year, equivalent to not driving for a month. Moreover, the larger the house, the more likely it is to forget to turn off lights or air conditioning, which also leads to energy waste.

Smart homes cultivate people’s awareness of thrift. Rather than saying that they encourage people to cultivate environmental awareness, it is better to say that smart homes themselves have environmental awareness. Through pre-setting, the system can automatically close doors, windows, and curtains when the summer sun is strong. When not in use, the power is automatically cut off. In this way, energy savings can be achieved anytime, anywhere.

According to data from the UK Carbon Trust, the use of human sensors can reduce energy consumption by 30%, and this efficiency can be further improved by 40% with the addition of daylight sensors. King’s College London also conducted an experiment in 2013. Due to the installation of sensors for indoor lighting, the energy consumption of lighting at the university was reduced by nearly 90%, saving £6,349 (approximately RMB 56,530) in electricity bills each year.

In addition, intelligent temperature control systems can effectively adjust the temperature situation in the home. By combining sensors such as indoor temperature, humidity, and air flow, the smart control algorithm optimizes the family’s heating and air conditioning systems. The system can intelligently control indoor temperature according to the preferences and activities of family members and monitor energy-saving effects in real-time. According to data from Global News Canada, these functions can help users save 15% on electricity bills.

At the same time, through networked intelligent management of devices, different household appliances can be controlled, scheduled, and automatically adjusted in the context of covering multiple family members, thereby achieving the maximization of household energy management. Smart home objects include air conditioners, water heaters, smart meters, lighting systems, water pumps, and vertical air conditioners, which can control and measure their energy consumption, reducing unnecessary power waste invisibly and saving miscellaneous expenses in unmanned homes.

The technology behind energy-saving systems

In order to further achieve energy-saving and emission reduction, and help users save energy consumption, many products have incorporated targeted technologies and products. For example, for energy-saving and consumption reduction of heating, ventilation, central air conditioning, and water treatment systems, products customized for specific uses will use dedicated inverters that are more advanced in the world today, adopting relatively simple programmable technology and operating methods, automatically adjusting the motor speed of water pumps and fans to keep the system in the most economical operating state, with an average energy-saving rate of 20-60%.

In motors that work in special situations where the load changes frequently, the grid voltage fluctuates greatly, or the harmonic content in the power supply is high, a special motor variable frequency drive will be added. Its function is mainly to use signal collection and storage to track load changes in real-time, and the energy-saving rate can reach more than 20%.

Why can controlling the frequency converter achieve energy saving? Taking regulating air volume as an example, reducing air volume can greatly reduce power consumption. According to fluid mechanics, power = pressure × flow rate, flow rate and speed are directly proportional, and pressure and speed squared are directly proportional, while power and speed cubed are directly proportional.

If the pump efficiency is fixed, when the flow rate decreases, the speed will decrease proportionally, and the output power will also decrease proportionally to the cube. Therefore, the speed of the fan and the electric power consumption of the motor are approximately a cubic ratio.

Many smart home ecosystems now also incorporate big data learning, which remembers, analyzes, and makes decisions based on users’ living habits and preferences. For example, indoor air conditioning environment cooling is combined with the usage habits of users in that region to formulate an air conditioning adjustment plan for the region and month, and when the refrigerator temperature is detected to be too low, a message reminder is sent to the user. It can even monitor and analyze through the cloud, and automatically adjust the operating parameters of the equipment based on its usage, thereby reducing energy waste.

Conclusion

With the development of artificial intelligence technology, future smart home systems will become more intelligent and autonomous, better able to adapt to users’ needs, and provide more personalized, comfortable, and energy-saving usage environments. At the same time, with policy promotion and industry development, the application of smart homes in the field of energy saving will become more widespread and popular, and even become an indispensable and important part of the product.