About the Project

 

The Home Utility Management System

Today, the world faces increasing and intensifying threats, both natural and man-made, to the vital resources that sustain modern life.

That threat, and the growing need for access to reliable water and power, inspired a group of Texas Tech University researchers to develop the Home Utility Management System, or HUMS for short. HUMS is an experimental home located in Junction, Texas, with the goal of capturing data that will help propel the development of future sustainable homes and infrastructure.

The experimental home is currently being custom outfitted with intelligent water and power conservation systems, including solar panels, a wind turbine, a data-rich water tank, and a residential battery. These tools allow researchers to closely monitor the home's water and energy usage and develop innovative conservation solutions.

These tools also work in unison to provide clean power to the home, inspiring an innovative approach to creating a decentralized utility power model. That model enables individual homes to produce their own sustainable portion of power and water.

The entire HUMS system is integrated into a home computer that displays both current power and water storage levels along with predictions for future water and power recharge, and it offers suggestions to help residents use these resources sparingly. This empowers HUMS residents with increased control of their own utilities use and an ongoing opportunity to preserve resources.

Today, HUMS is harvesting data and introducing residents to the possibilities of using self-sustaining water and power resources – on their own terms.