Live, Continuous Energy Auditing of Miscellaneous Electrical Loads: Methodology and Results

We present the architecture, implementation, and initial results from a live, continuous energy auditing system. By combining QR codes and mobile phones, we are able to iteratively collect building plug-load information and couple it with live, streaming meter data. The system consists of a deployment of inexpensive tags (QR codes) as well a smartphone-based auditing application. The mobile phone reads a tag to associate an electrical plug load with meter data and deployment information. The application also provides energy data services over the deployed infrastructure. These services allow the users to observe energy consumption patterns over time. We deployed our system in a 141,000 square foot, seven-story building, and tagged over 351 items over 139 rooms. We present the architecture of our system and the results of our initial audit. We also describe our application and future directions of this work.