Addressing Energy Poverty Through Ecological Governance of Solar Home Systems in South Africa

South Africa has long recognised the need to eliminate energy poverty, and significant progress has been made since 1996. With the recent global outcry about the use of sustainable and clean energy sources for human and ecological development, it has become essential for countries to upscale the use of non-grid electrification in order to effectively and sustainably eradicate energy poverty. South Africa implements different non-grid electrification programmes which focuses on ensuring universal access to clean energy by all, with one of these initiatives being the Solar Home Systems Programme. This study aims to contribute to academic discussion and knowledge about the role that solar home systems can play in bringing change on the current status of the energy poverty eradication initiatives which negatively affect the environment and the people. The study used a qualitative approach in assessing how the Solar Home Systems Programme contributes to energy poverty eradication and environmental preservation if managed in line with ecological governance principles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 40 households in Limpopo and officials from government departments in the province as well as a service provider responsible for the roll-out and maintenance of solar home systems in Limpopo. Framed within the ecological economics theory which advocates for ecological and environmental solutions that take into consideration the future generation, the study established that the solar home systems can eradicate energy poverty and contribute to the protection of the environment if managed in line with ecological governance principles. The study further revealed that the Solar Home Systems Programme in South Africa failed due to lack of proper governance systems that provide solutions for the future as the programme was short-term focused and lacked proper ecological governance systems. In order for the solar home systems to contribute to energy poverty eradication and environmental protection, the study recommends a total overhaul of the programme which includes ensuring that the provision of SHSs is not viewed as a temporary measure that is only meant for poor rural households but a long-term and sustainable initiative.

SURVIVABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF SMART CITY INFORMATION SYSTEM COMPONENTS

The article examines the problems of survivability and stability of functioning of components of Smart City Information Systems. The relevance of the topic is related to the wide dissemination and implementation of information and communication technologies at various levels. The degree of relevance is great. The authors analyze the situation with modern integrated systems of various levels of the smart city information ecosystem. One of the main problems of implementing smart home systems is the fragmentation and fragmentation of the market - each manufacturer seeks to lock the user to its standard, which leads to the lack of uniform standards of interaction. As a result, the usability of smart home systems worsens, the cost of ownership and support increases, and the security of their use decreases – including potentially increasing the area of cyberattacks. In addition, disparity in standards and vendor lock-in lead to excessive complexity of interaction between smart home systems and the smart city information ecosystem. All of the above pushes users away from the existing market and leads to a decrease in sales, which leads to stagnation in this market segment. The alternative model of system development proposed by the authors is based on the experience of implementing and developing existing solutions for Global Information Systems. The solution should be based on open interaction protocols at all levels of the information ecosystem, which will allow manufacturers to develop their product taking into account and in the context of interaction with other products. The construction of modules and components of such a system is considered separately. ideally, each of the smart home modules should not lose its qualities both in the context of the Smart Home information ecosystem and outside it.

IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY THROUGH INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) FOR SMART HOME APPLICATION TRAINING FOR STUDENTS OF SMK NURUL JADID PROBOLINGGO

The advancement of science and technology in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 is developing rapidly, including the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) which makes the world smarter. An example of its implementation is the smart home system which offers advantages, so that it is currently being widely socialized in Indonesian society. This training aims to provide solutions to partner problems, namely SMK Nurul Jadid, especially Grade 12 students. There are two main problems with partners that have a high level of urgency to be resolved, namely improving science and technology, and developing 21st century competence for students. The series of activities carried out included 1) Making IoT learning media for smart home systems, 2) Learning about IoT and smart home systems, 3) Training on making smart home designs, 4) Training on assembling smart home system tools, 5) Training on the use of the Blynk Application for smart home control system 6) Development of 21st century competence (digital era literacy, effective communication, inventive thinking, and high productivity). Activity achievement is measured using the before after test (pre-test and post-test) method. From the increasing number of correct answers in the post-test, it is known that there is an increase in students' understanding of science and technology about IoT for smart home systems. Meanwhile, the achievement of 21st century competency development is measured by the value of case studies given to students in which the entire group of students achieves the predicate of GOOD. The implementation of all training activities went well. The results of the evaluation questionnaire stated that students felt that this training was very beneficial for improving science and technology and also very beneficial for the development of their competencies. Thus, this series of activities is a solution because it can solve internal problems as well as solutions to external problems of partners.Keywords: BLYNK IoT Platforms, Internet of Thing, Smart Home System, Vocational High School AbstrakKemajuan IPTEK di era Revolusi Industri 4.0 berkembang pesat dan cepat, termasuk perkembangan Internet of Things (IoT) yang membuat dunia lebih pintar. Contoh implementasinya adalah sistem smart home yang menawarkan keunggulan, sehingga saat ini mulai banyak disosialisasikan di masyarakat Indonesia. Pelatihan ini bertujuan untuk memberikan solusi permasalahan mitra yaitu SMK Nurul Jadid khususnya siswa Kelas 12. Terdapat dua permasalahan utama mitra yang memiliki tingkat urgensi tinggi untuk diselesaikan, yaitu peningkatan IPTEK dan pengembangan kompetensi abad 21 bagi siswa. Rangkaian kegiatan yang dilakukan meliputi 1) Pembuatan media pembelajaran IoT untuk sistem smart home, 2) Pembelajaran tentang IoT dan sistem smart home, 3) Pelatihan pembuatan desain smart home, 4) Pelatihan perakitan alat sistem smart home 5) Pelatihan penggunaan Aplikasi Blynk untuk sistem kontrol smart home 6) Pengembangan kompetensi abad 21 (literasi era digital, komunikasi efektif, berpikir inventif dan produktivitas tinggi). Capaian kegiatan diukur menggunakan metode tes before after (pre-test dan post-test). Dari jumlah jawaban benar yang meningkat pada post-test, diketahui adanya peningkatan pemahaman siswa terhadap IPTEK tentang IoT untuk sistem smart home. Sedangkan pencapaian pengembangan kompetensi abad 21 diukur dari nilai studi kasus yang diberikan pada siswa yang mana seluruh kelompok siswa mencapai predikat BAIK. Pelaksanaan seluruh kegiatan pelatihan berlangsung dengan baik. Hasil kuesioner evaluasi menyebutkan, siswa merasakan bahwa pelatihan ini sangat bermanfaat bagi peningkatan IPTEK dan juga sangat bermanfaat bagi pengembangan kompetensi mereka. Dengan demikian, rangkaian kegiatan ini merupakan solusi karena dapat menyelesaikan permasalahan internal sekaligus solusi permasalahan eksternal mitra.Kata kunci: Aplikasi BLYNK, Internet of Thing, Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan, Smart Home System

Solar E-Cooking with Low-Power Solar Home Systems for Sub-Saharan Africa

The e-cooking feasibility was evaluated for two of the main staple foods across rural Sub-Saharan Africa (rice and maize porridge) considering basic solar home systems (SHS) of 100–150 W and using inexpensive market available low-power DC cooking devices (rice cooker and slow cooker). The coverage of e-cooking necessities was spatially evaluated for the African continent considering households of two, five, and eight people. While households of two people were able to be covered >95% of the days, the increase in e-cooking necessities implied that only larger PV generators (150 W) located in high irradiation sites (>2400 kWh/m2/year) were able to fulfill e-cooking, even in scenarios of households of five and eight people. Furthermore, the economic cost and the greenhouse gases emission factor (GHG) of e-cooking via small SHS were evaluated and benchmarked against traditional technologies with wood and charcoal considering three-stone and improved stoves and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cookers. The GHG for e-cooking was 0.027–0.052 kgCO2eq/kg.meal, which was strikingly lower than the other technologies (0.502–2.42 kgCO2eq/kg.meal). The e-cooking cost was in the range of EUR 0.022–0.078 person/day, which was clearly lower than LPG and within the range of the cost of cooking with wood and charcoal (EUR 0.02–0.48 person/day). The results provided a novel insight regarding market available technologies with a potential of changing cooking conditions in this region.

Design of Smart Home Control System Based on Wireless Voice Sensor

With the rapid development of economy, science, and technology, people have higher and higher requirements for the quality of home life, and smart home systems are required to have higher convenience and comfort. The continuous development of embedded technology, short-range wireless communication technology, and microcontroller technology provides a new development direction for the research and development of smart home systems. Under the premise of fully studying the research status and development trend of smart home systems, this paper combines embedded technology, ZigBee wireless communication technology, voice recognition technology, GSM communication technology, etc., and proposes a ZigBee-based smart voice home appliance control system. The system adopts ZigBee wireless communication to form a comprehensive management system for household electrical appliances, electronic and electrical equipment, etc., for household electrical control, intelligent security, and environmental monitoring. This paper designs the overall scheme of a smart home control system based on voice recognition technology. According to this scheme, the hardware and software of the system are designed, and the wireless communication method combining Wi-Fi and RF (radio frequency) of the system is also determined. In order to make the system more humane, two sets of control schemes, voice control and button control, are designed according to the system’s functional requirements. In the voice control solution, the user first reads the control commands set in the voice library on the smart terminal, and then, the system automatically recognizes the commands read by the user. After the recognition is successful, the user can control the home appliances through the command. In the key control scheme, users can control home appliances through keys on the smart terminal. The upper computer transplants the audio library and the algorithm studied in this paper to realize the audio collection and storage, the confirmation of family members, and the recognition of voice commands; the lower computer is used for real-time collection of environmental information and wireless control of home facilities. After the system is started, the family members are first confirmed by voice, and then, the voice command recognition result and real-time environmental information jointly decide to form a control command. The upper computer sends the control command to the lower computer through the serial port to control the corresponding home equipment. The system is tested and analyzed under experimental conditions. The test results show that the system can control home facilities through voice commands combined with real-time environmental information while confirming family members.

An Internet-of-Things (IoT) System to Automate the Pet Door Controlling using Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision

Pets are cute and fun, but sometimes it gets annoying when you are trying to get some sleep in [14]. Also the population of people who would like to be accompanied by pets is rising rapidly. However, people these days lack time to meet all requirements of pets, which causes plenty of tragedies [3]. In this paper, we designed an application/tool called Automate the Pet Door Controlling which is using artificial intelligence and Computer vision to create a better living condition for pets, and a easier life for people who love their pets, especially for those who cannot spend a lot of time or physically hard to open doors for pets. My design builds an integratable system which is available for most smart home systems, also this design supports extra datasets imported to enlarge the types of pets.