Demand side management of heat in smart homes: Living-lab experiments

Abstract In smart energy systems the role of the building is transformed from being a passive consumer into an energy flexibility provider. Buildings are expected to have flexible energy demand to provide services to energy grids. In this paper we present an experimental study conducted in a multi-storey residential apartment building. In the experiments supervisory control of individual room temperatures was applied to provide direct demand response for district heating grids. Control signals were applied to the individual floor heating systems in about 90 rooms in order to reduce heating demand in peak load hours. The results show that there is a significant potential for flexible energy consumption in homes based on smart home systems. It was found that when using a simple time based penalty signal, on average, the peak-hour energy consumption was reduced by 85% with little impact on overall energy consumption and indoor temperature.