The Energy Conservation Center said Monday that the use of information technology in home electricity networks has the potential to reduce home electrical power costs by 20 percent.
The nonprofit research institute said it has been studying IT-integrated systems that can significantly reduce and monitor energy use in houses, stores, offices, factories and manufacturing plants. The center said power costs at home could be slashed 20 percent should houses be equipped with the high-tech appliances and monitoring systems currently being developed by the center's researchers.
It also predicted that power costs could fall 14 percent at stores and 8 percent at manufacturing plants.
The center has researched systems including air conditioners and lights that activate and deactivate automatically when they detect or fail to detect the presence of people. It has also developed an integrated system that displays the amount of power being used.
A report based on the research will be released at the Japan Industry Applications Society Conference that begins today in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture.