Home Automation to Reduce Energy Consumption

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a solution where home automation systems can reduce electricity consumption by using Internet of Things technology based on HC-SR501 PIR motion sensor, DS18B20 temperature sensor, and LDR analog sensor in conjunction with NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller and relays so that the home appliances can be automatically controlled based on human presence, temperature, and ambient light. The proposed solution includes a web application for users to give an idea of the amount of electricity consumed with daily and monthly unit cost, as well as to provide automatic and manual control functions of the appliances. PZEM-004T electrical energy sensor used with the NodeMCU ESP8266 to determine energy consumption. The hardware prototype was tested rigorously for an ample amount of time. The test results confirmed that the prototype functioned well and could control electrical appliances automatically and manually via the web app. Firebase is used as the cloud-hosted database to provide cloud infrastructure through which the web app and ESP8266 communicate with each other. The web app successfully collected electrical energy data and displayed the daily and monthly costs on the app's dashboard, as well as real-time motion, temperature, and light intensity.

Keywords

• energy savings
• home automation
• nodemcu esp8266
• smartphone
• web application