A Prototype Home-Based Environmental Monitoring System

Abstract

An important step towards reducing humankind's reliance on unsustainable energy is by improving energy efficiency in a home or building. One solution to energy-intensive homes is to take environmental measurements in-house that can alert the owner of what rooms and conditions have high-energy waste (e.g., unnecessary air-conditioning or lighting). This paper describes the development and performance of a low-cost, easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain wireless sensor network suited for home environmental monitoring. Low-cost and ease-of-use are achieved through a single open-source software element developed for use on a home computer and a low-cost sensor node element that can be simply placed and turned on. Ease-of-maintenance is achieved by prolonging the sensor's battery life and minimising user interaction. Data is retrieved from the sensor and aggregated to central location automatically when the home PC/sink node is turned on. There is no further interaction is required by the user beyond initialising the application.