Name of the Research entity: Department of EEE, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Team Members:

1.   Prof. Dr. S. Shahnawaz Ahmed
2.   Prof. Dr. Abdul Hasib Chowdhury
3.   Prof. Dr. Md. Farhad Hossain
4. Assoc. Prof. Hamidur Rahman
5. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nahid- Al- Masood

 Justification of undertaking the project:

• Energy conservation is an emerging issue in global as well as national perspectives.
• Importance of saving energy i.e. energy conservation can hardly be exaggerated in the context of Bangladesh where

1. urbanization is taking place rapidly leading to increase in cooling (Air Conditioning units) and lighting loads.
2. electricity is generated using mainly the depleting indigenous gas reserve and imported costly liquid fuels.

Objective of the project:

The main objective of the project is to develop an occupancy sensitive real-time automation scheme to reduce the energy consumption of any brand of cooling (AC units) and lighting loads already existent at a given space optimizing respectively two sets of variables.

• For cooling, the set comprises number of occupants, indoor and outdoor temperature, indoor humidity, and comfort level.
• For lighting, the set comprises locations of occupants, ambient light, required luminance and utility.

Results and Discussion:

• A low cost automation scheme has been developed for energy conservation using off-the-shelf (i.e. non-customized) hardware.
• The scheme results in auto update of ACs’ temperature setting and auto switching of lighting units depending upon the occupancy and ambient conditions so that an optimum reduction in electricity consumption is ensured maintaining the comfort of users. 
• The prototype developed for the system was tested using 3 AC units of different brands and 16 composite units of LED (Light Emitting Diode) tubes already existent in a lab space. The test showed energy saving from about 11% to 35% for cooling loads and around 35% to 87.5% for lighting loads as the occupancy decreases from high to low level.
• The developed scheme is scalable and adaptable for a multistoried building with any number of floors and rooms and any brand of AC and lighting units.

Research Highlight:

• No customized AC unit is needed. The method is applicable to both inverter type and constant-speed type AC. The scheme is manufacturer-independent, so it will work with any AC unit of any brand if the ‘Computer to AC Communication module’ is configured to work with that brand. The AC unit need not be opened for this configuration.  
• No customized lighting unit is needed. Any type of light (LED, CFL, conventional fluorescent lamps) unit can be controlled.
• The existing internal wiring system for the ACs and lights need not be replaced or modified.
• No commercial software is used. Only open-source/free and self-developed software is used.  
• The scheme does not need any remote cloud server and hence no internet connectivity. The interconnection among server, cameras, sensors and interfacing modules (for ACs and lights) in the Lab is done through a wireless LAN using a Wi-Fi router which is not connected to internet. As a result, control is extremely fast and free from cyber threats.
• The developed scheme uses off-the shelf gadgets and is a low-cost solution for energy management. This is scalable and adaptable for not only a single room rather a multi-storied building.
• Same cameras have been used for both Cooling and Lighting Load Control.
• Though the developed system uses cameras, the acquired pictures of the occupants are processed instantly and neither displayed nor stored in any form. As a result, there is no infringement of the privacy act.