Smart Conservation: Home Energy Monitoring System
Format
SOECS Senior Project Demonstration
Faculty Mentor Name
Cherian Matthews
Faculty Mentor Department
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Additional Faculty Mentor Name
Ken Hughes
Abstract/Artist Statement
With energy costs rising and an uncertain solution to our future energy needs, energy conservation will continue to be an important part of future sustainability efforts. However, our monthly electricity bill tells us very little about the energy we are using, what appliance is using the most, or how to realistically reduce our rate of energy consumption. We designed a home energy monitoring system capable of monitoring home energy usage at each individual outlet and transmitting usage data to any computer. Making an energy monitoring system that is capable of monitoring every outlet in a home is outside the scope of this project. Therefore, we built a proof of concept home energy monitoring system. The system would replace conventional home outlets with the “smart outlets” that monitor and transmit usage data to a personal computer. Our device does not replace the outlet at this stage, but plugs into a standard 120V U.S. outlet. We made two devices; one to simply transmit data to a computer, and another which transmits the data to a computer and displays information via an onboard display. These units collect useful data for the homeowner such as: voltage level measured in volts, current consumption in amps, average power drawn in watts, power factor, average power drawn over time in kilowatt-hours, and computes the cost. The computer interface shows all of this information as well as gives a graphical presentation of the energy usage.
Location
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Start Date
27-4-2013 2:00 PM
End Date
27-4-2013 3:30 PM
Smart Conservation: Home Energy Monitoring System
School of Engineering & Computer Science
With energy costs rising and an uncertain solution to our future energy needs, energy conservation will continue to be an important part of future sustainability efforts. However, our monthly electricity bill tells us very little about the energy we are using, what appliance is using the most, or how to realistically reduce our rate of energy consumption. We designed a home energy monitoring system capable of monitoring home energy usage at each individual outlet and transmitting usage data to any computer. Making an energy monitoring system that is capable of monitoring every outlet in a home is outside the scope of this project. Therefore, we built a proof of concept home energy monitoring system. The system would replace conventional home outlets with the “smart outlets” that monitor and transmit usage data to a personal computer. Our device does not replace the outlet at this stage, but plugs into a standard 120V U.S. outlet. We made two devices; one to simply transmit data to a computer, and another which transmits the data to a computer and displays information via an onboard display. These units collect useful data for the homeowner such as: voltage level measured in volts, current consumption in amps, average power drawn in watts, power factor, average power drawn over time in kilowatt-hours, and computes the cost. The computer interface shows all of this information as well as gives a graphical presentation of the energy usage.