More Sustainable Systems for Residential Automation and Information

Abstract

This paper seeks to demonstrate the possibilities of residential automation and information systems, so that its residents can recover part of the knowledge about the cycles of nature, lost in the course of history. These possibilities are evaluated from systems for zero energy homes and, more specifically, to the houses built for the academic competition idealized at the North-American Energy Department, the Solar Decathlon. The graphical interfaces of the residential automation and information systems assume an important role in this context and still have many limitations, even in the experimental houses of Solar Decathlon. For this reason, the development of interfaces that integrate the data of the house systems with the environment is an important challenge, thus the automation and information systems have a significant impact on the daily lives of residents. Therefore, we believe that from these interfaces, the residential automation and information systems may facilitate the approach of the residents to the cycle of the nature, and the sense of belonging to the planet.