Do home energy management systems make sense? Assessing their overall lifecycle impact

Do home energy management systems make sense? Assessing their overall lifecycle impact

An ever-increasing body of research explores the effectiveness of Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) in achieving energy savings in households. To date, however, the overall life cycle impact of the HEMS itself has not been taken into account. Thus, no assessment has been made whether the amount...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy policy Vol. 63; pp. 398 - 407
Main Authors: van Dam, S.S., Bakker, C.A., Buiter, J.C.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2013
Elsevier
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Benefits
Cost
Economic data
Effectiveness studies
Electric power
Electricity
Energy
Energy conservation
Energy consumption
Energy economics
Energy efficiency
Energy management
Energy policy
Energy resources
Exact sciences and technology
General, economic and professional studies
Home energy management systems
Households
Life cycle assessment
management systems
Police
Product life cycle
Production
Saving
Savings
Smart meter
Life cycle assessment
Home energy management systems
Smart meter
Script
Profitability
Ecobalance
Housing
Energy savings
Energy balance
Energy conservation
Energy management
Investment
Residential sector
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Summary:An ever-increasing body of research explores the effectiveness of Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) in achieving energy savings in households. To date, however, the overall life cycle impact of the HEMS itself has not been taken into account. Thus, no assessment has been made whether the amount of energy saved (esaved) outweighs the energy needed for production, use and disposal (einvested). Therefore, an eco-cost and a Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) method were used to analyze three distinct types of HEMS. Based on the literature, six scenarios were developed in order to find the break-even point, where einvested=esaved. The results show that the overall impact is dependent on the type of HEMS, and that if the duration of use is short and the achieved savings are small, the benefits do not always outweigh the environmental costs. Care should be taken not to develop HEMS with unnecessarily elaborate parts or functionalities and that their own electricity consumption is minimized. The paper concludes by discussing the implication for polices concerning the implementation of smart meters and HEMS and their design. •We conducted a lifecycle assessment of three Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS).•We developed six scenarios to find the breakeven point where einvested=esaved.•All three HEMS can achieve net energy savings over the course of five years.•Within the scenarios, it can take up to two years to achieve net energy savings.•No HEMS achieve a positive return on investment within five years in all scenarios.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.09.041
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ISSN:0301-4215
1873-6777
DOI:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.09.041