IoT-Based Monitoring and Control Systems for Window Energy Management: Design and Implementation

This paper presents the design and implementation of an IoT-based system for window energy management. The system computes thermal transmittances of window units and solar heat gain coefficients through window units from measured sensor readings. It is critical to have energy efficient windows in homes and offices so as to conserve energy. In order to test the performance of the window units in realistic environments we created a system which can be used outdoors at any time. It is convenient for a user to control the system and access the measured data from a remote or even mobile site. The goal of this work was to design and implement a system that measures sensor data, transmits the data over a wireless communication link, distributes the data through the Internet, and stores the data in a database for analysis at any time and anywhere. The IoT is a computer network, in which anyone and anything can connect together anytime and anywhere [1]. It is realizable through sensing and communication technologies [2]. The IoT approach was adopted to achieve our goal due to the availability of sensing technology, wireless communication technologies, and standard computer networking protocols. We designed and implemented a system for calculating the thermal energy related parameters of the window units. The measured data from sensors were transmitted to a cloud server over cellular networks and the Internet. The data in the server can be accessed, stored, and displayed remotely. As long as electricity and cellular phone networks are available, the system can connect sensors to users. Extensive testing was conducted to verify the operation of the system. The testing and measurement results show that the system successfully performs the necessary operations to achieve the goal.