Using Evolutionary Algorithms to Achieve Sustainable Solutions through Household Appliances

Abstract

In order to reach a sustainable planet, there is a permanent need by the consumer (decision- agent), to achieve sustainable solutions, with its decisions. Given the importance of the buildings, as a sector to achieve such solutions, as well as the diversity of household appliances existent on the market, with all its different issues, there are several tradeoffs to consider (e.g. energy and water consumption vs initial investment), which difficult the consumer’s choices from the market. The problem increases, since nowadays, the consumer tries to get a solution from the market, with a good compromise between the Economic, Social and Environmental dimensions, and according to its specific needs, which can be different from other consumers. By considering a multicriteria approach, combined with an optimization technique, based on Evolutionary Algorithms (EA), it’s provided a set of sustainable solutions from the market to the consumer that respects the compromise referred before. In this work, it is presented an approach to support a decision-agent (DA) (consumer), by performing a set of sustainable choices based on household appliances from the market and suitable to its needs. Based on the obtained solutions, several savings are achieved (electrical and water consumption, CO2 emissions), by considering the consumer’s relative importance, regarding its Economics, Environmental and Social concerns.