【Mr. Green】Energy Star Smart Home Energy Management System

One key proposal centered on the concept of a system that combines hardware, occupancy information, and automated services to achieve energy savings. Questions related to this concept were organized into multiple topics, such as product scope, certification criteria, evaluation, and definitions.

In terms of scope, the Energy Star team is collecting feedback from stakeholders to determine which products should be included or excluded from these systems. In addition to smart thermostats and smart lighting, there are devices that already address the energy use of other electronic loads (MELs), such as smart plugs, sockets, and power strips. In addition, there is occupancy sensing. Finally, a solution was proposed to be completed by service providers who provide turnkey solutions that can meet key criteria, such as occupancy sensing technology to develop energy optimization strategies based on verifiable data from gateway providers.

In terms of certification criteria, the focus will be on identifying the best turnkey solutions in the market, that is, solutions that can successfully optimize system performance to achieve energy savings using occupancy information, such as through "away" modes. Such modes include short-term "away" and long-term "away". Questions raised in the meeting also involved how to achieve integration between software and hardware, and metadata about user behavior (for example, how often users choose to opt out) will be taken into account. To develop appropriate standards, it is necessary to understand the energy requirements of the plug load as well as the energy range of the smart switch. The information obtained can be used to determine how to limit standby power.

In terms of evaluation, in addition to the usual laboratory testing, it is also necessary to collect real-world application data on behavioral interactions. In addition, it is necessary to understand how to determine whether the system can respond to human presence sensing. In order to establish and improve the evaluation standards, data must be submitted twice a year to verify energy savings, which is what Energy Star's smart thermostat does. To ensure privacy, statistics can also be reported in different categories, such as the average number of different types of Energy Star devices, the average number of additional function devices, and the average number of opt-out events or user-defined settings.