Multimodal Utility Data for Appliance Recognition: A Case Study with Rule-Based Algorithms

Appliance recognition from aggregate household measurements is challenging under real deployment conditions, where multiple devices operate concurrently and sensor data are affected by imperfections such as noise, missing samples, and nonlinear meter response. In contrast to many studies that rely on curated or idealized datasets, this work investigates appliance recognition using real multimodal utility data (electricity, water, gas) collected at the building entry point, in the presence of substantial uninstrumented background activity. We present a case study evaluating transparent, rule-based detectors designed to exploit characteristic temporal dependencies between modalities while remaining interpretable and robust to sensing imperfections. Four household appliances-washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer, and kettle-are analyzed over six weeks of data. The proposed approach achieves reliable detection for structured, water-related appliances (22/30 washing cycles, 19/21 dishwashing cycles, and 23/27 drying cycles), while highlighting the limitations encountered for short, high-power events such as kettle usage. The results illustrate both the potential and the limitations of conservative rule-based detection under realistic conditions and provide a well-documented baseline for future hybrid systems combining interpretable rules with data-driven adaptation.