Home Light Automation With The Help Of IoT: A Project Report

In this project we are proposing a design using PIR sensor, LDR sensor, relay module for the automation of the light with the help of IOT. Now-a-days we are having automation of every little electrical device in our homes.

The Internet of Things is simply "A network of Internet connected objects able to collect and exchange data. " It is commonly abbreviated as IoT. The word "Internet of Things" has two main parts; Internet being the backbone of connectivity, and Things meaning objects / devices. IOT is more than smart home and connected appliances. However, it scales up to include smart cities with connected sensors. Using LDR sensor, the light will automatically turn on and off according to the intensity of the light. PIR sensor will sense the motion of people, accordingly lights will turn on and off.

Internet of Things

The concept of Internet of things (IOT) was introduced by the growth of the widely used global network known as the internet along with the deployment of available computing and mobiles in smart objects which brings new opportunities for the creation of innovative solutions to various aspects of life. The concept of Internet of things (IOT) creates a network of objects that can communicate, interact and cooperate together to reach a common goal. IOT devices can enhance our daily lives, as each device stops acting as a single device and become part of an entire full connected system. This provides us with the resulting data to be analyzed for better decision making, tracking our businesses and monitoring our properties while we are far away from them.

As the paradigm of IOT is growing, it is stepping into every aspect of our lives. This leads to an easier life through wider range of applications, such as electronic health care solutions and Smart city concept. The concept of Smart city aims to making a better use of resources, increasing services quality offered to the citizens, and reducing costs of the public administrations. Another application is home automation which is the main focus of this project.

Problem Statement

The problem that future generation will face is lack of electricity. Since people nowadays are not saving it and are wasting it. The main aim of our project is to save electricity. Electricity in India is mostly through non-renewable resources like coal so it’s not going to last forever. So to ensure a better future we will try to save electricity with the help of IOT.

Considering places like colleges or schools, students often tend to leave lights on while leaving the classrooms or washrooms. Also it is not feasible to turn lights on and off whenever someone enters the room or leaving. Hence there’s a dire need of automating the lights so as to prevent the wastage of electricity.

Related Work

The similar projects are being manufactured by the listed companies:

OAKTER: Their smart personal comfort algorithm automatically sets room temperature to optimum levels based on our choices. Unlocks the door using mobile app to avoid hassle of carrying keys, etc.

IFIHomes: The firm has started building up its inventory with Switches, light bulbs, Solar lights, and Accessories, it also have a wide range of Network Cameras for both indoor and outdoor use. It also plan on adding more products within the near future with a promise to serve you the best you could be served.

PERT: Pert is again a Home Automation solution provider which lets you control your switches and devices at the tap of a button. With one Pert, you can manage up to 8 switches and every Pert comes with an installation and a free iOS and Android App. It helps in minimizing your electricity consumption.

iMonitor Solutions: iMonitor Solutions‘ product Z-WAVE is a new wireless protocol that establishes an Intelligent, Private and Secure Network within your house between devices that serve you and your nominees only. It’s working range can be extended significantly as the devices act as repeaters and form a mesh network. It’s Intelligent network enables devices to learn to find best communication path. One can add up to 232 devices.

BuildTrack: BuildTrack provides user friendly solutions which are cost and energy efficient. All the products are manufactured in-house, are tested before delivery and are designed to suit Indian conditions. They won the CII National Award for the Most Innovative Energy Saving Product.

Thasmai Automation: Thasmai offers Home Automation and Home Theater solutions for you by making the products and systems you already have and use every day work together. By integrating everything from lighting controls, music, home theater, climate control, security–smartphones and tablets –Thasmai creates personalized experiences. They also provide home security solutions including CCTV System, Anti-Burglary System, Video Door Phone, and Biometric Locks.

Solution to Our Problem

To prevent the wastage of electricity we will try to automate the lights in the washroom. As soon as someone enters the washroom the lights will automatically turn on considering the need of lights in the room at that time. For detection of someone entering the room, we are using a motion sensor. It will detect the presence of a human in the room and will inform the microcontroller. The microcontroller will turn the lights on through the relay connected to it. As the person leaves the room, motion sensor will detect no motion (absence of human) then microcontroller will turn the lights off. We’ll use another sensor to detect the amount of light already present in the room as if there’s no need of lights, the model won’t turn the lights on.

We will be using the following components:

• Arduino UNO
• PIR sensor
• LDR sensor
• Relay Module.

Arduino UNO

Arduino is an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable circuit board (often referred to as a microcontroller) and a piece of software, or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your computer, used to write and upload computer code to the physical board. Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board.

PIR sensor

PIR sensor detects a human being moving around within approximately 10m from the sensor. This is an average value, as the actual detection range is between 5m and 12m. PIR are fundamentally made of a pyro electric sensor, which can detect levels of infrared radiation. For numerous essential projects or items that need to discover when an individual has left or entered the area. PIR sensors are incredible, they are flat control and minimal effort, have a wide lens range, and are simple to interface with.

LDR Sensor

A light-dependent resistor alternatively called an LDR, photo-resistor, photoconductor or photocell, is a variable resistor whose value decreases with increasing incident light intensity. An LDR is made of a high-resistance semiconductor. If light falling on the device is of high enough frequency, photons absorbed by the semiconductor give bound electrons enough energy to jump into the conduction band. The resulting free electron (and its hole partner) conduct electricity, thereby lowering resistance.

Relay Module

The module is uses SRD relay module to control high-voltage electrical devices. (Maximum 250V). It can be used in interactive projects and can also be used to control the lighting, electrical and other equipment. It can be controlled directly by a wide range of microcontrollers and can be controlled through the digital IO port, such as solenoid valves, lamps, motors and other high current or high voltage devices.

Expected results

PIR sensor will continuously check for motion in the room, as soon as it encounters the change in infrared radiations it will generate 1 as output. If the room is fed with sufficient light already (may be from windows), Arduino will read higher LDR value from LDR sensor, which will not activate not give any input to relay module. If the room has insufficient light, LDR will transfer lower value and according to the condition set in the code, Arduino will check if it’s lower than 200. For LDR-value condition to be true, Arduino will check for PIR value, if its 1, it will light the bulb through Relay module. If the PIR value is 0 (no motion detected), then it won’t light the bulb.

Conclusion

Our main aim is to see that our device can save electricity or not so once it is activated we will check the consumption of electricity and see if it is feasible or not. We will make specific modifications required to have optimum usage of our product. We will use specific sensors required to check electricity consumption. We will also send messages to mobile so that the products can be accessed from anywhere.

Our focus now is on College premises. Once we are successful here, we will increase our market and try to automate more electric products for the betterment of our future.