Abstract
Home energy management systems (HEMS) connect homes to a smart grid and may increase the overall use of renewable energy by directing energy demand to off-peak hours and increasing energy conservation. However, the promised changes in electricity consumption have yet to be proven in real-life experiments. We therefore analysed the changes in electricity consumption, daily consumption profiles, and number of low and high consumption hours after installing HEMS in 10 Finnish households. These changes were examined in the context of the values related to energy use in each household, which were derived from semi-structured interviews. In the real-life experiment, we showed that the HEMS reduced the total consumption of electricity in the winter months by up to 30%, shifted the consumption to off-peak hours and decreased the number of high consumption hours. These changes occurred even in the homes that valued comfort over savings or ecological sustainability. Nevertheless, the levels of energy conservation varied greatly between the households and between months in the same homes.
Highlights
Smart home energy technologies are attracting considerable atten tion due to the global energy transition [1,2]
The results of our study showed that the Home energy management systems (HEMS) increased energy conservation, changed the households’ energy consumption profiles and shifted their times of consumption
We analysed the changes in the level of energy consumption and the consumption profiles before and after the installation of HEMS in 10 homes
Summary
Smart home energy technologies are attracting considerable atten tion due to the global energy transition [1,2]. Home energy manage ment systems (HEMS) are a technology that can be used in homes to facilitate and automate energy management [4]. They can reduce overall energy demand and shift more consumption to off-peak hours while simultaneously enhancing household comfort and convenience [1,5]. HEMS make a home the end-use node of a smart energy system and allow flexible energy demand, advancing the use of RES and helping mitigate climate change [5,6,7,8]. The aim of this study was to extend the current knowledge on HEMS energy savings and energy consumption profile changes using real-life data from 10 households before and after the adoption of HEMS
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