Built-In Electrical Wiring Could Directly Monitor Home Energy Use

Soon enough, your home electrical wiring could do more than just keep electronics running–it could also act as a giant information-transmitting antenna. Researchers at the University of Washington and the Georgia Institute of Technology have leveraged electrical wiring to power wireless sensors able to keep track of a building’s temperature, light level humidity, air quality–essentially any quantifiable building function. With help from the wiring, these sensors could run for decades on a single watch battery, meaning they could even be placed in hard-to-reach areas around the home.