The largest portion of a home’s energy consumption is attributed to its Heating, Ventilation and Cooling system (HVAC). Since the early 1900s, programmable thermostats have been studied as a potential tool to achieve energy savings in the home. However, many studies have shown that conventional programmable thermostats are not used to their full potential due to several factors including; difficulty using interfaces, lack of understanding of how HVAC systems function and a trend of fading user interaction with the thermostats over time. To overcome this, Smart thermostats were created that could detect the occupancy and usage trends of a household and auto-generate schedules; thus eliminating the need for users to program their thermostats. High profile start-ups such as Ecobee and Alarm.com, as well as Google acquisition Nest, have developed smart thermostat systems, which not only optimise HVAC energy usage but also serve as focal points of smart home platforms. However, researchers from the Universities of […]