Enhancement of a low-cost intelligent device for improving energy efficiency in buildings

Ascending energy demand and vanishing nonrenewable energy resources have increased the prominence of energy efficiency nowadays. In order to accomplish an energy efficient future for the forthcoming generations of humanity, traditional devices possessing low efficiency should be altered with intelligent devices having high efficiency. Thanks to internet of things (IoT), conventional devices have been turned into intelligent devices which can be remotely accessed, monitored and controlled by utilizing ubiquitous sensor mechanisms. In this study, enhancement of a low-cost intelligent device (iDev) is targeted to develop in order to compute and store electrical energy consumption into a database by an embedded card named as Arduino which has the capability of measuring voltage, current, frequency and power factor for improving energy efficiency in buildings. When a classic device is connected to the enhanced iDev, the device is converted to an intelligent device that is remotely controllable. As a consequence, if a whole building is equipped with the proposed iDev, it is considered that a large amount of electrical energy will be saved for a better and livable Earth.