1. “Illuminator”- A mobile application to conserve
electricity in the residential sector
A.A.Burhan, F.H.Zarook, Y.M.S.Anuruddika, M.I.Haniffa, R.Varunan, M.M.A.Musfik
Abstract— the annual electricity consumption in Sri Lanka has shown a drastic increment and the Sri Lankan government is bearing
a large amount of expenditure for generating electricity annually. One of the immense problems is that a lot of this energy is wasted
due to negligence and inattention. The energy conservation has become a key factor for the survival of civilization thus it is important
to conserve electricity in order to save resources for future generations. The proposed mobile application, “Illuminator” will be
developed in order to help conserve energy in the residential sector. The mobile application will be specially designed to notify the
user of the excess use of electric items and will also give the user the ability to switch on/off the electric device accordingly. The use of
mobile application technology for conserving energy and educating consumers is having great impact in this sector. However, a
system that can detect all electric items in a particular location and notify the user accordingly is very rare. As a result of this users
are not aware of their electricity consumption until the electricity bill is issued at the end of the month therefore the application will
help consumers conserve energy. The main objective and core concern of developing this application is to help electricity consumers
to conserve electricity as much as possible. Therefore the proposed mobile application will be very beneficiary for them.
Keywords— civilization, survival, application, consumption,
conserve, negligence,
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity is one of the most powerful forces in our
lives. In the ancient times people relied for power
on their own muscles, on the muscles of
domesticated animals, on water and wind.
Eventually as the population increased there was a
significant advancement in the life styles of human
that led to the evolution of civilization. [1]
At present there are many energy sources
discovered. In Sri Lanka, the primary sources of
generating electricity are hydro power (the use of
the gravitational force of falling or flowing water)
and thermal power. With the increase in population
the annual electricity consumption in Sri Lanka is
drastically increasing. According to the Central
bank report in the year 2010 the gross generation of
electricity by power stations is 10,714.49Gwh. [2]
The Sri Lankan government is bearing a large
amount of expenditure for generating electricity
annually. To help the government expenditure to
decrease, to help consumers conserve electricity
and use it appropriately, the team decided to
contribute a solution to this problem by developing
a mobile application to help people save and be
cautious while using electricity. The application
will detect the electric items in a particular location
and will alert the user when it is being
unnecessarily used. If the electric item is being used
unnecessarily it will automatically turn it off, it will
also calculate the usage of the electricity
consumption and alert the user via a Notification if
it’s exceeding the usual limit. A web application
will also be developed for users to login to the
internet via the mobile to detect and control the
electric items at their residence.

2. II. LITERATURE REVIEW
J.P.Clinch and J.D Healy performed a study to
demonstrate how energy savings, environment
benefits and health and comfort improvements
maybe assessed. The study provides an insight into
the methodological difficulties and solution for
accessing the social efficiency of large scale
domestic energy conservation projects. [3]
Sarah Darby has conducted a research to review the
effectiveness of three types of feedback to domestic
consumers, direct feedback in the home, indirect
feedback via billing and “inadvertent” feedback (by
product of technical, household or social changes) it
also concludes that feedback has a significant role
to play in raising energy awareness and in bringing
about reduced consumption of the order of 10% [4]
The research conducted by W. Fred Van Raaij and
Theo M.M. Verhallen, proves that most energy
saving can be attained in home heating. If
household members accept lower thermostat
settings and avoid heat losses through windows and
doors as much as possible, considerable savings
will be attained. [6]
The study conducted by John E. Petersen, Vladislav
Shunturov, Kathryn Janda, Gavin Platt and Kate
Weinberger conveys that in residential buildings,
personal choices influence electricity and water
consumption. The goal of this study is to assess
how different resolutions of socio-technical
feedback, combined with incentives, encourage
students to conserve resources. [7]
Silvia Banfi, Mehdi Farsi, Massimo Filippini and
Martin Jakob conducted a research using a choice
experiment to evaluate the consumers’ willingness
to pay for energy-saving measures in Switzerland’s
residential buildings. These measures include air
renewal (ventilation) systems and insulation of
windows and facades. Two groups of respondents
consisting respectively of 163 apartment tenants
and 142 house owners were asked to choose
between their housing status quo and each one of
the several hypothetical situations with different
attributes and prices. [8]
A mobile application that will help users have
greater control over their home energy costs by
finding out how much their home appliances cost to
run. [9]
“AC Power Saver", an android application enabling
consumers to calculate energy consumption and
potential savings. [10]
III. OBJECTIVES
 To help people conserve electricity at their
residence and reduce their monthly
expenditure.
 To help the government of Sri Lanka reduce
its expenditure on generating electricity.
 To conserve resources from being exploited
for future generation.

3.  To help people conserve electricity so that
electricity can be provided to rural areas
without any deficiency.
 To implement a system to keep track of the
electric items and alert the usage
accordingly.
 To automatically turn off the electric item
when it is being unnecessarily used.
 To keep track of the electricity usage and
inform the user if it is exceeding the usual
limit, via a Notification.
IV. METHODOLOGY
Developing a software product is a crucial task, and
has a sequential manner of implementation
therefore the most suitable methodology has to be
selected to produce an effective and efficient
product. For the implementation of this project our
team has decided to use the “prototype”
methodology. Under this environment sequential
steps are followed for the developing process. With
the use of this methodology if any changes need to
be occurred it can be done with no additional cost
and in an effective manner.
 Information Gathering
At the initiation phase of the project information
has to gather via questionnaires and surveys. The
team needed to use different approaches to gather
information to get the overall idea of the product
which the team intends to implement. By
conducting interviews and also by gathering
information through questionnaires the residents’
important requirements were gathered.
Furthermore we gathered information from a survey
on how far residents’ are satisfied with the
applications which have been launched up to date.
The team is looking forward to go beyond the
customers’ requirements and provide a satisfactory
system.
 Analyzing
Analyzing is the key to get a clear idea about the
requirements of the system. The team is very keen
in identifying the requirements clearly in order to
develop a flawless system. Therefore team meetings
were held and the information which was collected
through surveys, questionnaires and interviews are
analyzed carefully. In addition the project team got
more information through the internet and past
relevant systems. After the analysis process the
design phase is initiated.
 Design
According to the requirement specification
analyzed the team will map the requirements into
architecture. The architecture will define the
components, their interfaces and behaviors
accordingly. The System Requirement Specification
document will define and describe the plan to
implement the requirements. The programming
languages, the algorithms, data structures,

4. interfaces, databases and files needed and many
other details will be established.
 Implementation
The implementation of the system was divided
among the group accordingly. Two members of the
team were implementing the mobile application
while another two members of the team were
allocated to complete the web application and the
rest of the members were handling the connectivity
between the applications via a service application.
To pass signals through the applications to the
electric devices, a connection between the
application and the electric devices should be
established. In order to establish the connectivity
the following electric circuit was built. The signals
passed through the app is detected by a service
application and sent to the circuit and the circuit
passes the signal to the relevant electric device. The
following diagram indicates the electric circuit
which was built.
Fig 1: The top view of the circuit
 Testing
Once the implementation phase of the system
begins the system will be tested and evaluated in
order to identify bugs and inefficiency. Each
module of the system will be tested separately.
Once the modules have all been implemented and
tested individually, the system will be integrated.
The integration testing and evaluation will take
place afterwards. According to the results of the
evaluation the system will be adjusted and
improved until a satisfactory system is delivered.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
‘Illuminator’ is an application specially designed
for the public in order to help conserve electricity
and use electricity efficiently. The team have
focused on several measures to make the mobile
and the web application effective.
PI
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(IC)
Relay
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s
Output
Connectors
DC Input
Converter

5. The reliability program plan is essential for a
successful reliability program and is developed
early during system development. It specifies not
only what the reliability engineer does, but also the
tasks performed by others. The team is launching an
error free web and mobile application. The main
pillar of reliability for the web application is the
backup of the database which is continuously
maintained and updated by the administrator.
The mobile application will be available in the
user’s phone all the time, but in certain scenarios if
the user needs to reinstall the android application,
user can simply login to the web and download the
application. The mobile Application will control
devices only in the Wi-Fi range. The web
application will be available all the time, the user
can access it using a web browser at any time of the
day thus even if the user is out of the Wi-Fi range
the user has the ability to access the web application
via internet.The only restriction will be the down
time of the server on which the system will not be
available for users, when data backup is being done.
This process will take place only once a week apart
from that the web application will be available
anytime of the day (24/7).
Privacy is an important aspect in any system
therefore Illuminator has been protected with
relevant security measures.There will be no external
access to the database of the web application. Only
the administrators of the system will have full
database administration rights. Each and every user
of the system will have a user name and a password.
Password will be encrypted by the database and in
case of emergencies users will be asked to provide
the recovery options. When the password has been
lost or forgotten that time the system will help to
get password again by using the recovery option. If
they missed to use recovery option they have to
Sign up again.
After the deployment of the project, if any error
occurs it can be easily maintained by the system
administrator. The web application can be further
developed easily to increase the functionality by
easily adding more classes due to its object oriented
design.
VI. CONCLUSION
The study of the current Sri Lankan electricity
usage and consumption shows that they have
several drawbacks such as avoidance and
negligence. Research indicate that many systems
have been implemented up to date with use of
mobile technology, yet all aspects needed to
conserve electricity has not been covered.
“Illuminator” the mobile application is intended to
overcome the above problems. The proposed
mobile application system contrast with the
approaches which has been implemented presently
and beyond, where it functions as a time based
alerting system where it notifies the user about the
termination of the electrical device and also
encourages the users to save electricity as well.
Also with the implementation of the website the
users will be able to not only have these benefits at

6. residence and also when the users are away. For the
management of a usage of electricity “Illuminator”
will be a resourceful companion.
VII. REFERENCE
[1] J C. Williams,”History of Energy” THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, April
25, 2006[Online]. Available: http://www.fi.edu/learn/case-files/energy.html
[Accessed: Feb 9, 2013]
[2] “Sri Lanka- Electric power Consumption” [Online].Available:
http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/sri-lanka/electric-power-consumption
[Accessed: Feb 9, 2013]
[3] J.P.Clinch and J.D Healy, “Cost-Benefit Analysis of Domestic Energy
Efficiency, Energy Efficiency”, 2000.[pdf].Available:
http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/msceps/courses/welfare%20economics/8.%20C
linch%20Healy%20Energy%20Efficiency%20CBA%20no%201.pdf
[Accessed: 23 February 2013]
[4] W. Fred VAN RAAIJand Theo M.M. VERHALLEN, “A BEHAVIORAL
MODEL OF RESIDENTIAL ENERGY USE”, North-Holland Publishing
Company, November 15, 1982.[pdf] Available:
http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=10412 [Accessed: 22 February 2013]
[5] John E. Petersen, Vladislav Shunturov, Kathryn Janda, Gavin Platt and
Kate Weinberger, “Dormitory residents reduce electricity consumption when
exposed to real-time visual feedback and incentives”, Emerald.[pdf].
Available:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1585597&show=abstr
act [
Accessed: 22 February 2013]
[6] Silvia Banfi, Mehdi Farsi, Massimo Filippini, Martin Jakob “Willingness
to pay for energy saving measures in residential buildings”, ELSEVIER, 8
June 2006.[Pdf]. Available:
http://www.unternehmenssteuertag.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Redaktion/Seco
@home/nachhaltiger_Energiekonsum/Literatur/Zahlungsbereitschaftsfragen/s
darticle.pdf
[Accessed: 22 February 2013]
[7] John E. Petersen, Vladislav Shunturov, Kathryn Janda, Gavin Platt and
Kate Weinberger, “Dormitory residents reduce electricity consumption when
exposed to real-time visual feedback and incentives”, Emerald.[pdf].
Available:http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1585597&s
how=abstract
[Accessed: 22 February 2013]
[8] Silvia Banfi, Mehdi Farsi, Massimo Filippini, Martin Jakob “Willingness
to pay for energy saving measures in residential buildings”, ELSEVIER, 8
June 2006.[Pdf]. Available:
http://www.unternehmenssteuertag.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Redaktion/Seco
@home/nachhaltiger_Energiekonsum/Literatur/Zahlungsbereitschaftsfragen/s
darticle.pdf
[Accessed: 22 February 2013]
[9] Electric Ireland, Residential Energy Services: [online].Available:
https://www.electricireland.ie/ei/residential-energy-services/reduce-your-
costs/smartphone-calculator.jsp [Accessed: 25-02-2013].
[10] moneylife: http://www.moneylife.in/article/save-electricity-using-new-
bee-phone-app/25421.html
[Accessed: 25-02-2013].
[11] Power Control Plus (widget) Sirius Applications Limited Google Play
Source: [online].Available:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.siriusapplications.eclairwid
gets&hl=en [Accessed: 25-02-2013].
[12] Power Toggles Painless Death Google Play Source: [Online].Available:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc [Accessed: 05-
02-2013].