Smart Home Energy Optimization Using IoT and Simple AI

Problem statement

In many homes, appliances like lights, fans, air conditioners and heaters are left ON unnecessarily due to human forgetfulness. This leads to higher electricity bills and energy wastage. Conventional timers are not adaptive and do not learn user habits. A smart system is needed that monitors power usage and automatically optimizes appliance operation based on learned patterns.

Abstract

This project builds a smart home energy optimization system using IoT-enabled smart plugs and basic machine learning. Each major appliance is connected through a smart plug that measures power consumption and provides ON/OFF control via Wi-Fi. An ESP32 or similar controller logs usage data to a cloud platform. A simple AI model learns patterns like typical usage times and durations, and suggests or automatically executes energy-saving actions such as turning OFF idle devices or scheduling loads during off-peak hours. The user interacts through a web or mobile dashboard.

Components required

• ESP32 / NodeMCU-based smart plugs with relay and current sensor
• Current sensor modules (ACS712 / HLW8012 etc.)
• Wi-Fi router
• Cloud IoT platform (ThingsBoard, Firebase or custom server)
• Web or mobile dashboard (React / Flutter / simple web UI)
• Optional voice assistant integration (Alexa / Google Assistant)

Block diagram

Working

Each smart plug measures real-time power consumption and reports it to the cloud via MQTT or HTTP. The server stores timestamped readings per appliance. A background script analyzes historical data to detect daily and weekly patterns, such as appliances that remain ON during unoccupied periods. The system then recommends schedules or automatically turns off devices when they are detected as idle beyond a certain threshold. Users can override actions using the dashboard. Over time, the model improves its understanding of user behavior and becomes more accurate in optimization.

Applications

• Smart home energy management
• Hostel room and lab power optimization
• Office energy saving systems
• Educational demo of IoT + AI integration