The interaction of households with energy is becoming more complex, driven by smart devices, time of use charges from utilities, home storage batteries, solar panels, solar hot water, vehicle-to-grid or vehicle-to-house technology, and potentially others.
Managing and optimizing this energy flow for cost effectiveness, reliability, and comfort is a computational task too difficult (and uninteresting to most people) to be done manually.
Background
The system (generally a residence) energy inputs and outputs can be thought of as a kind of “energy economy” in which energy is bought from the grid or produced at home and used or sold to various “buyers”, either household functions or an external utility. Decisions about sourcing, storing, using, and selling energy require a system model as well as predictive capabilities. In the case of a residence, energy usually comes in the form of electricity or heat. Systems for energy management already exist for large commercial buildings, we believe that technology has advanced sufficiently to make them cost-effective for homes.
Our Focus
The initial focus for JouleBox is the definition of strategies and methods for achieving optimal system (home) energy performance including potential data sources such as sensors, and internet accessible data (e.g. weather forecasts). Initial outputs will be limited to reporting of potential actions and perhaps simple on/off control for some devices. Longer term, it is anticipated that energy industry manufacturers would want to implement strategies identified here in products made available to homeowners and/or utilities.
We believe that this should be of interest both to homeowners/consumers wishing to save money while retaining comfort as well as utilities wishing to make more optimal use of their assets while reducing capital outlays for infrastructure and accelerating the transition to sustainable WWS (Wind/Water/Solar) energy.