An Intelligent Standby Power Control System Design based on User Location and Appliance Usage Pattern in Smart Home

Abstract

The standby power controlling system that is currently used works by automatically blocking standby power upon sensing the use of electricity or by the user’s manual on/off controlling. As this type of system, however, requires the voluntary participation of the user for resupply of electric power, it causes inconvenience to the user and necessarily involves the user’s intervention for power saving, which is the significant disadvantage of this system. In consideration of user convenience as well as standby power saving, this study suggests a system that automatically blocks and resupplies standby power depending on the user’s utilization pattern and movement within an appliance’s sensing zone. The system is a ZigBee structure based on IEEE 802.15.4, a low electric power wireless network, and two narrow angle–type PIR sensors are installed at the entrance and given an ID each so that they can recognize the entrance and exit of users in the order of ID sensing. In addition, one ultrasonic sensor is installed for sensing the user’s key, thus recognizing the user. To verify the standby power saving effects of the suggested system, scenarios were made for each user’s pattern, and the quantity of standby power saving was comparatively analyzed.