Home based power outlet usage monitoring system

• Main Authors: De Guia, Jirro Ozel L., Driver, Troy Lewis L., Olanday, Reynaldo V., II
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Electric wiring, Interior > Maintenance and repair; Electric apparatus and appliances > Installation.; Computer Sciences
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11516
• Institution: De La Salle University

The increasing demand of energy, our reliance on dwindling fossil fuels and increasing power generation costs has made the conservation and conscientious reduction of energy use of much greater importance today. While on the one hand practically all appliances are increasingly more energy efficient, each household now not only has the complement of home appliances, but a plethora of personal electronic devices (gadgets) for each member of the dwelling. The typical end-result is a monthly electric bill that leaves the question of where all the kilowatt-hours has gone. A study by Becker in 1978 entitled Joint Effect of Feedback and Goal Setting on Performance: A Field Study of Residential Energy established that residential consumers who had a goal of reducing electric consumption are able to achieve better results than what they had set out to do- provided constant feedback about their power usage was always available. To date however, there are no existing systems that measure the amount of power consumed by appliances or devices individually. This paper presents such a system. The individualized power monitors are capable of measuring instantaneous wattage and VA (volt-ampere). The instantaneous values are aggregated and sent by powerline communications to a central database, where a web-based client software reports and plots appliance consumption. The system uses encryption to provide the necessary amount of security for the data communications overpower-line, with workable communications up to a maximum of 20 meters. The power monitor provided an accuracy of better than one percent, and was tested on appliances varying in power demand from 3.5W to 1300W. Stress-testing by use of appliances rated from 180 to 1300W, carried out over a continuous three (3) day period verified the reliability of the system, while a survey showed that the user-interface software was easy to understand and useful.