IoT-Based Air Conditioning Control System for Energy Saving

Abstract

A high portion of electric consumption is air conditioning in householders or offices, reaching 42%. Therefore, it is necessary to automatically regulate air conditioning operations for energy saving using a control system, usually involving its hardware. As another option, the control system also involves electronic devices and software. This research developed an automatic control system using an ESP32 microcontroller integrated into the Blynk-based internet of things (IoT) for energy-saving air conditioning. The ESP32 was programmed using Arduino IDE and combined with a motion sensor to maximize energy saving. The motion sensor was a trigger to turn on the system. The recorded data were current, voltage, power, temperature, and motion detection. Based on the recorded power, the consumed energy was computed using trapezoidal and Simpson's composite rules of numerical integrations and ordinary methods. The testing was conducted in conventional, manual, and automatic operations. The yielded automatic control system operated adequately. The testing results revealed that the automatic operation saved 1.15 kWh (15.00%),0.99 kWh (13.66%), and 1.14 kWh (14.87%) average daily energy compared to the conventional operation, respectively, by using the ordinary, Simpson's composite rule, and trapezoidal composite rule computations. While the automatic compared to the manualmethodssaved1.68 kWh (20.44%), 1.78 kWh (22.14%), and 1.66 kWh (20.24%), respectively, for the same computations. Thus, the automatic system considerably saved energy compared to conventional and manual operations. Moreover, these energy savings were also higher than some previous research on air conditioning energy savings.