Management and control of energy use in homes and buildings

家庭和建筑部门是加拿大能源的重要消费者，根据加拿大统计局的数据，2008年仅住宅能源使用就占能源使用的22.8%，供暖，照明和电器占总量的12.6%。这些部门的能源消耗量一直在上升，2000年至2008年增长了11%。随着能源成本的上升和能源的碳足迹越来越受到关注，迫切需要智能地控制家庭和建筑物中的能源使用，消除浪费，同时最大限度地减少对用户舒适度的影响。 实现这些目标需要仔细控制电器、加热和冷却系统以及照明（能源的三大用途）的能源消耗，并考虑用户的偏好。最近太阳能电池板成本的快速下降提高了通过将这些元素集成到家庭和建筑物中来同时减少碳足迹、传输和分配损失以及运营成本的进一步可能性。然而，这些发电资源是随时间变化的，需要仔细调整，集成和控制相关的（昂贵的）电力存储。 从计算机系统研究的角度来看，管理能源消耗需要设计和实现一个由无线传感器和执行器组成的底层控制框架，再加上计算。因此，我们的总体目标是利用低成本的普适计算和无处不在的无线通信来管理和控制建筑物和家庭中的能源使用，利用我们过去几十年在设计，实施，操作和管理计算机网络（如Internet）方面的经验。

The household and building sectors are a significant consumer of energy in Canada, residential energy use alone accounting for 22.8% of energy use in 2008, with heating, lighting, and appliances accounting for 12.6% of the total, according to Statistics Canada. The energy consumption by these sectors have been rising over time, growing 11% between 2000 and 2008. As energy costs rise and the carbon footprint of energy sources becomes a growing concern, there is an imperative need to intelligently control the use of energy in homes and buildings, eliminating waste while minimally affecting user comfort. Meeting these goals requires careful control over energy consumption by appliances, heating and cooling systems, and lighting (the three main uses of energy), taking user preferences into account. The recent rapid decrease in the cost of solar panels raises the further possibility of simultaneously reducing carbon footprint, transmission and distribution losses, and operational cost by integrating these elements into homes and buildings. However, these generation resources are time-varying, requiring the careful sizing, integration, and control of associated (expensive) electricity storage. From the perspective of computer systems research, managing energy consumption requires the design and implementation of an underlying control framework that is composed from wireless sensors and actuators, coupled with computation. Our overall goal, therefore, is to exploit low-cost pervasive computing and ubiquitous wireless communication for the management and control of energy use in buildings and homes, drawing on our past decades of experience in the design, implementation, operation, and management of computer networks such as the Internet.