Residential-area-energy-management apparatus and method using social network

An energy management method for a residential area including houses which are in the same complex and are the same in size, number of residents, floor, and directions of verandas, comprising:

• in response to an energy management request from a user who lives in the residential area, collecting environment information and energy information on a household of the user;
• selecting an imitation target among households which have environment information and energy information similar to the environment information and the energy information on the household of the user from among all households in the residential area;
• extracting one or more patterns to be imitated, by comparing environment information and energy information on the imitation target with the environment information and the energy information regarding the user;
• selecting at least one method from an automatic method, a semi-automatic method, and a manual method for each of the one or more extracted patterns to be imitated;
• and
• controlling energy management of the household of the user based on the selected at least one method from the automatic method, a semi-automatic method, and the manual method for the household of the use,
• wherein the environment information comprises energy usage setting information,
• wherein the energy information on the household of the user includes an electricity consuming device that is used outside a house but belongs to the household.