The energy system of a house

If you are often away from home, you will appreciate the ability to manage a “life” in your house remotely. Yes, nowadays, with the emerging technologies, you can turn on the light in your house, turn on the washing machine, or adjust the heating thousands of kilometers away.

Do so called control system of a house can involve common household appliances, but also various energy sources. All with the aim of optimizing the energy consumption in the building. What about an electric car? It is driven by an electric motor, and a battery is usually used as a power source, it must be charged before driving, and the driving distance of the vehicle depends on its capacity. An electric car may not only serve as an environmentally friendly, elegant and quiet means of transport. If it was included in the system of a house, it could serve as an intelligent mass storage of electricity. Electric vehicles may therefore function not only as means of transport, but they can feed energy back into the network – using intelligent technology of charging and discharging.

Also, the team of scientists and students of the Department of Cybernetics and Biomedical Engineering has long been involved in optimizing the network control system of a house. Although the theoretical and practical results are excellent, generally, greater expansion of electric vehicles faces several challenges. Public awareness about electric cars is associated with misleading information about the high purchase price of the vehicle and the absence of efficient batteries for adequate driving range. More than this, the problem is the still developing infrastructure and insufficient supply of manufacturers of electric vehicles. Even so, it can be assumed that the globalization of the market, growth in fossil fuel prices and stricter environmental protection will enable their future use, not only in transport.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, VŠB-TUO