Is Artificial Intelligence the Secret to Cutting Your Home’s Power Bills?

What Is an Energy Model?

Think of an energy model as your home’s digital twin. It’s a virtual simulation that estimates how much power your home uses and how that changes under different conditions. It takes into account: 

• Physical characteristics: Your home’s size and layout, the number of windows and doors, the type and quality of insulation, the age and efficiency of appliances, and the type of HVAC system you have
• Environmental factors: The local climate, the amount of sunlight your home gets during the day, and even the changing seasons
• Occupant behavior: Your family’s daily routines, such as when you’re home, when you use hot water, your preferred thermostat settings and how often you use your electronic devices 

Energy models can accurately predict which upgrades are most efficient and how to save money. Models like the Building Energy Optimization Tool (BEopt) are widely used by architects and engineers to design efficient structures and evaluate retrofits before making real-world changes.

However, such models require significant technical expertise to use and are not designed for homeowners. This is where AI comes in.

How AI Helps Create and Run Home Energy Models

Companies that create smart thermostats and other home energy management systems have essentially built a simplified, automated energy model into their products. Instead of manually entering values as in BEopt, AI does the work for you. It collects data from home sensors and other sources and uses this in four key ways.

Data Integration

AI can combine sensor information, smart meter feeds, weather data, utility rates, building characteristics and historical usage to produce a rich and accurate home energy model. It can then analyze this data to learn your family’s specific patterns.

Predictive Power

By recognizing these patterns, AI can accurately predict your future energy needs. For example, it can learn that you typically turn up the heat on cold mornings. It can use this information to automatically start warming the house just before you wake up, but in the most energy-efficient way possible.

Optimization and Recommendations

This is the secret sauce for cutting your power bills. AI can run thousands of simulations to find the optimal way to run your home’s systems. It can then provide you with personalized recommendations, such as:

•  “You could save X amount per month by adjusting your thermostat by 1 degree during the day.”
• “By insulating your garage walls, you can limit the heat drainage from your home, saving X amount per year.”
• “Your south-facing windows are getting a lot of sun in the summer, which is making your AC work harder. Consider adding blinds or curtains.”

Automation

In a truly smart home, AI can go beyond just making recommendations and actually take action. It can automatically adjust your thermostat, turn off lights in empty rooms and even decide the best time to run your appliances to save you money.

So, Is AI the Secret to Lower Energy Bills?

AI isn’t a magic savings button, but it is a powerful tool for optimizing real-time power consumption and making smart retrofit or upgrade choices. By facilitating and running easy-to-use, intuitive energy models for householders, it moves beyond generic energy-saving tips and provides personalized, actionable insights. Over time, savings in a typical home will add up, and the building’s carbon footprint will decrease — making for happier homes and a healthier planet