Research Projects

This is a year-long research project about how to effectively detect occupancy on campus. The motivation is that if we could know the number of people in a given space, we could adjust the HVAC systems accordingly. This would not only make people more comfortable, but it would also lower utility costs for the school as the HVAC would not be over- or underutilised, and save energy as well.

The method of detection has to be low-cost and non-intrusive since the current market has not provided such. Detecting occupancy through plug load management is proposed, where the voltage drops produced by plug-in electronics are observed through smart plugs.

Through experimentation and data gathering, it is concluded that using plug-load management does work. However, instead of looking for the voltage drop caused by the plug-in devices, observing the current drawn is proven to be more reliable. In addition, the smart plugs we used are only accurate up to the hour, not by the minute.