When circular economy meets building automation.
We all know buildings are getting smarter. But did you know your old smartphone could play a role in this transformation? We are exploring the potential of using discarded smartphones to manage smart buildings' energy. Imagine, instead of tossing away an old phone, it could help control heating or cooling in a building!
Although we might throw away a phone for a faulty battery or screen, its central parts, like the CPU and memory, often still work perfectly. These parts could be used to manage a building's energy use, reducing the need for new devices and reducing our carbon footprint.
To check if this is possible, we did some experiments. They looked at two types of control algorithms: model-based predictive control and data-driven predictive control. These are fancy ways of saying how a building's energy use can be optimized, whether it’s heating a room or managing a battery system.
For the experiments, old smartphones were turned into mini-computers running Linux. They were then tested in different setups, like controlling room temperature and managing battery use. They even compared the speed of sending and receiving messages with other devices like laptops and Raspberry Pis. The goal was to see how well these phones could handle tasks typical for building energy management.
The findings? These smartphones did quite well! They could keep room temperatures within comfortable limits and manage battery usage accurately. This research shows great promise for using our old gadgets in new, environment-friendly ways.