Design of SMART and Energy Efficient Homes - An Overview

What is a SMART Home? What is the difference between a SMART Home and an Energy Efficient Home?

Here is an overview...

Here SMART is a new concept which is an acronym for  "Systematic Monitoring of Appliances and Review Techniques". It is a home in which all its appliances are quality controlled, tested, installed, monitored and reviewed systematically.  Most of the appliances in our homes are electrical appliances. Imagine if each electrical appliance has its own power source independent of the main supply! This is too smart! But it is possible in the near future. A SMART home consists of all electrical appliances working intelligently together in such a manner that there is optimum power consumption and there is no wastage of time and energy as well. Imagine you have switched on the water pump motor to fill the overhead tank and you forgot to switch it off. What is the result of this act of negligence? Of course, wastage of water and electricity. In a SMART home the pump motor is controlled by level sensors and what is more it also senses the amount of water you consume by reviewing the optimum use of water for each application. This means "intelligence" is applied for operating each appliance and it is not only applicable for electrical appliances. Imagine the operation of a water level sensor in the bucket in your bathroom which automatically shuts off water supply as soon as the bucket is full and there are "intelligent" taps which operate only when hand wash is needed! Well, there is a lot of research to be done in these areas. At ELIM Virtual University, we collaborate with Energy University of Schneider Electric to introduce a course on "Design of SMART and Energy Efficient Homes" somewhat similar to the Passive Houses in USA. The following diagram represents the design of  a SMART Home:

Your suggestions regarding this concept are welcome. Please post your comments. The specialized course on "Design of SMART and Energy Efficient Homes" will be available online during our Fall 2014 session.

For more details on this topic stay tuned...

The detailed curriculum and course schedule for the online Fall 2014 session (for both regular stream and specialized courses) are being prepared. This will provide a platform for engineering students to upgrade their knowledge and skills in new areas. Two more specialized courses in Electrical Engineering are "Power System Design" and "Distributed and Intelligent Generation Systems"

We wish you all the best!