Interoperable IoT system that could adapt local context of the built environment

Abstract

IoT technology has great potential to transform the built environment and, in doing so, create energy savings. With operational energy use in buildings causing around 30 per cent of CO2 gas emissions, and demand for energy use in buildings on the rise, it is necessary to develop measures to reduce consumption, and IoT could hold the key to this. Just a few examples of ways that this can be achieved are: real-time energy monitoring, with IoT smart sensors measuring the power consumption of a building to show how and where energy is used; smart lighting, whereby unnecessary lighting is switched off and energy saved; and smart metering systems, leading to higher energy efficiency, cost savings and new data sources. Indeed, IoT devices in buildings can collect important data, which has a number of important applications, and the long-term value of IoT devices in buildings comes from mining the data collected by sensors and devices as this can be used to enhance building performance and efficiency. Professor Tomonari Yashiro, based at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, is exploring how ICT and the IoT could help improve the sustainability and energy efficiency of buildings.