By 2030, estimates suggest that the global demand for energy will rise by about 75 percent, and therefore it has become imperative to reduce energy consumption.
Residential buildings play a big role in the consumption of energy, consuming nearly 14 percent of the total energy consumed across the globe.
If that’s not bad enough, this increase in consumption has caused electricity prices to skyrocket, increasing by as much as 37 percent in the past three years alone in some places (according to an analysis done by Citizens Advice).
But don’t worry, there are measures you can take to reduce your electricity consumption (and we don’t just mean sitting quietly in the dark).
Enter Home Energy Management Systems
Home energy management systems, or HEMS for short, allow homeowners to monitor and reduce the energy consumption of electricity-dependant devices. With the help of HEMS, energy consumption can be easily monitored by cellphones, tablets, or other communication devices.
HEMS also helps in power management by tracking the real-time energy consumption of electronic devices and comparing it with historical data. It aims to improve the communication between the tool and the consumer.
A HEMS’ ability to reduce a consumer’s monthly electricity bill is a huge reason why the Global Home Energy Management Systems Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.7 percent from 2013-2018.
HEMS includes five products: lighting controls, self-monitoring systems and services, intelligent HVAC controllers, advanced central controllers, and programmable communicating thermostats. These products manage and reduce the energy consumption in individual homes. The basic functions of HEMS are given below:
Energy Management Can Lead to BIG Savings
Energy management is considered to be one of the most effective methods to reduce the energy usage in the Residential sector. There are various processes involved in HEM, which include recording, normalizing, analyzing, targeting, monitoring, reporting, and controlling. The processes are used to record energy consumption data, normalize energy data to determine the influencing factors, and analyze data to understand the consumption trends to compare them with historical data.
HEM products also facilitate the creation of targets for reducing energy consumption, monitoring the consumption to check if it matches the set targets, and reporting the outcome to the end-user.
Energy Management at Your Fingertips
HEMS are designed not only to reduce energy consumption, but also to increase the comfort levels of consumers by providing them with a unique remote location operability option (using wireless connecting devices). With HEMS, consumers can keep a check with lighting controls, HVAC controllers, and central controllers.
Also, HEMS enable monitoring and control of all electrical appliances with the help of a controller accessed through the internet. In addition, vendors offer HEMS with remote access through smartphones and other mobile computing devices.
Most of the operations in the Residential sector are expected to be automated in the future, when computer technology will be used to ease the work. Even now, in many regions home automation is already implemented.
For instance, HVAC control systems have been widely implemented in the Residential sector in the Americas. PCs are also being used for HEM applications such as controlling thermostats. Thus, increased usage of computer technology for better management of energy usage is driving the growth of the Global HEMS market.
