A Non-Intrusive Heuristic for Energy Messaging Intervention Modeled Using a Novel Agent-Based Approach
Authored by Fatima Abdallah, Shadi Basurra, Mohamed Medhat Gaber
Date Published: 2019
DOI: 10.1109/access.2018.2886146
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Abstract
In response to the increased energy consumption in residential
buildings, various efforts have been devoted to increase occupant
awareness using energy feedback systems. However, it was shown that the
feedback provided by these systems is not enough to inform occupant
actions to reduce energy consumption. Another approach is to control
energy consumption using automated energy management systems. The
automatic control of appliances takes out the occupant sense of control,
which is proved to be uncomfortable in many cases. This paper proposes
an energy messaging intervention that keeps the control for occupants
while supporting them with actionable messages. The messages inform
occupants about energy waste incidents happening in their house in real
time, which enables occupants to take actions to reduce their
consumption. Besides, a heuristic is defined to make the intervention
non-intrusive by controlling the rate and time of the messages sent to
occupants. The proposed intervention is evaluated in a novel layered
agent-based model. The first layer of the model generates the detailed
energy consumption and realistic occupant activities. The second layer
is designed to simulate the peer pressure effect on the energy
consumption behavior of the individuals. The third layer is a
customizable layer that simulates energy interventions. The implemented
intervention in this paper is the proposed non-intrusive messaging
intervention. A number of scenarios are presented in the experiments to
show how the model can be used to evaluate the proposed intervention and
achieve energy efficiency targets.
Tags
Agent-based modeling
behavior
Energy efficiency
Energy consumption
Feedback
Internet
information
technology
Operations
context
Electricity consumption
Comfort
Energy
feedback system
Energy interventions
Energy management system
Building energy