II-NEW: The BetaHome Network: A Multi-Home Testbed for Smart Building Technology

该奖项为弗吉尼亚大学的一个新的机构计算研究基础设施（CRI）项目提供资金，该项目专注于住宅能源研究。最近的研究表明，嵌入式传感和控制在家庭环境中的应用具有很大的潜力。 然而，这一领域的研究受到限制，无法进行小规模实地试验和试点研究。 BetaHome网络是一个新的住宅传感测试平台，包括一系列家庭，其中包括电气，水和HVAC系统的广泛和半永久性仪器。 该测试平台捕捉到了家庭中的几个可变性维度，这些维度是一次性现场测试和小型试点研究所不能捕捉到的。 此外，也许最重要的是，BetaHome网络系统跟踪和记录居住者在家中的位置，与也被记录的能量、水和HVAC事件相关。 这种独特的传感测试平台提供了一个完整的，实时的图片占用和能源使用的家庭与前所未有的细节有关的内部发生的家庭。 该试验台使几种新类型的研究，迄今为止是不切实际的，包括横截面分析和控制干预研究。 通过该项目，可以研究新的技术，用于（i）家庭中的占用和能源监测（ii）个性化能源反馈（iii）智能恒温控制（iv）低成本能源审计，以及（v）智能固定装置驱动的水加热。该项目创建的研究基础设施可以研究新的家庭监测和能源效率技术，专注于可以很容易地转化为市场的实用和低成本的解决方案。 例如，初步研究表明，每户家庭供暖和制冷所需的能源减少了28%，而每户家庭额外安装传感器的成本仅为25美元。 该项目为住宅“生活实验室”开辟了一个新领域，加强了节能技术领域的研究和教育基础设施，有助于推动国家实现到2030年全国现有建筑物总能源效率提高70%的目标。 新的课程正在开发，由于这一基础设施和研究生和本科生的研究人员都参与了新的研究。 该项目正在产生一个前所未有的详细的新数据集，可用作能源监测界的基准，以通过说明其应用性质和社会效益潜力，促进研究并激励未来几代研究人员研究科学和工程。

This award provides funding for a new institutional Computing Research Infrastructure (CRI) project focused on residential energy research at the University of Virginia. Recent studies have demonstrated great potential for applications of embedded sensing and control in the home environment. However, research in this area is limited by the inability to experiment beyond small scale field tests and pilot studies. The BetaHome Network is a new residential sensing testbed that includes an array of homes with extensive and semi-permanent instrumentation of the electrical, water, and HVAC systems. The testbed captures several dimensions of variability in homes that are not captured by one-off field tests and small pilot studies. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the BetaHome Network system tracks and records the locations of occupants within the home, in relation to the energy, water, and HVAC events that are also being recorded. This unique sensing testbed provides a complete, real-time picture of both occupancy and energy usage in the home with unprecedented detail about the internal happenings of the home. The testbed enables several new types of studies that were heretofore impractical, including cross-sectional analytics and controlled intervention studies. The project enables research on novel techniques for (i) occupancy and energy monitoring in homes (ii) personalized energy feedback (iii) intelligent thermostat control (iv) low-cost energy audits, and (v) intelligent fixture-driven water heating.The research infrastructure created by this project enables research on new home monitoring and energy efficiency technologies, focusing on practical and low-cost solutions that can be readily translated to market. For example, preliminary studies demonstrated a 28% reduction per household in the energy required for heating and cooling, at the cost of only $25 in additional sensors per home. This project opens a new realm for residential ``living laboratories'' that enhance the infrastructure for research and education in the area of energy-efficient technologies, helping to propel the nation towards its goal of a 70% improvement in the total energy efficiency of existing buildings across the country by 2030. New courses are being developed as a result of this infrastructure and both graduate and undergraduate researchers are involved in new research. The project is producing a new data set of unprecedented detail that can be used as benchmarks for the energy monitoring community to enable research and inspire future generations of researchers to study science and engineering by illustrating its applied nature and potential for social benefit.