Carbon-Neutral Smart Homes in the Context of Sustainable Cities: A Multi-Scale Framework for Net-Zero Energy and Carbon Integration

This paper proposes a multi-scale framework for carbon-neutral smart homes embedded in sustainable cities. The framework integrates IoT-enabled sensing and control, AI-based forecasting and optimization, and urban digital twins to coordinate energy use across building, neighborhood, and city layers. A city-data backbone and standards-based interfaces support real-time monitoring, demand flexibility, and net-zero energy strategies while accounting for socio-economic and environmental constraints. In representative simulations and case studies, building-level energy consumption is reduced by ۲۰–۳۰%, and—when coordinated with smart urban grids and time-varying tariffs—overall reductions of up to ۹۰% are observed in selected scenarios. The framework provides a practical pathway for policymakers and developers to plan, test, and deploy net-zero carbon services with auditable performance at multiple scales.

Keywords:

Artificial intelligence (AI) , carbon-neutral buildings , digital twins , smart cities , smart homes