Home Heating and Cooling Consumes a Lot of Energy

Home heating and cooling consumes around 20% of the total energy in the U.S. For an average house in midwest, that’s more than $1100 spending per year on heating and cooling. This high consumption, however, is largely due to inefficient usage of the heaters at home. Although companies have started to develop smart thermostats, these thermostats are still limited. They often have limited intelligence, leading to missed opportuntiy for saving. They also lack the skills to inform and coach people about how to reach more efficient usage of their heating and cooling systems.

Comfort-Aware Eco-Coaching Thermostats

To better encourage energy saving while respecting people’s comfort needs, I’m currently designing and developing what we call comfort-aware eco-coaching thermostats. This work is in preparation for publication so I can’t share much detail here. Please contact me if you are interested in the project.