Abstract
Efforts to mitigate climate change impacts will be required in the coming decades to ensure countries, communities, and individuals have access to affordable power and water (utilities). As natural disasters increase in severity and frequency, resiliency against these events will also become increasingly important. The current American centralized utilities infrastructure is susceptible to natural disasters, which can leave communities without utilities for days or longer. While efforts to improve the infrastructure are important, it may be possible to achieve sustainability and resiliency at the single residence and community levels. This work discusses the Home Utility Management System (HUMS), which addresses issues with centralized utilities through on-site generation of renewable utilities. The HUMS home is equipped with solar panels, a residential wind turbine, a battery array, and a water collection tank and filtration system. A novel aspect of HUMS is the custom software, which synthesizes weather forecast data with household utilities consumption to provide tailored predictions of utilities generation to residents. Specifically, machine learning algorithms are trained to extract forecasts specifically for the HUMS home, and artificial intelligence algorithms are also employed to provide resource conservation suggestions to the residents. Our goal is to provide residents with meaningful and pointed information that can assist them in conserving their resources, particularly when those resources are limited. In doing so, we aim to investigate the quality of life the HUMS home can afford its residents and if sustainability efforts at the residential and community scales can mitigate the impacts of a changing climate.
Presenters
Russell ManserStudent, Ph.D. Candidate, Texas Tech University, Texas, United States Brian Ancell
Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University, Texas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Climate Change, Quality of Life, Resources, Consumption, Atmospheres, Desertification
