POWERMET A Non-Intrusive Power-Metering Device

Abstract

A report that has been published by the CIA speaks about the average energy consumed per capita. The numbers come to be about 2674kWh per person per year [1]. In a matter of two years’ time, the carbon dioxide emission that arises from the consumption of electricity has jumped to about 26 percent. The staggering increase has outpaced the growth of human population [2]. This highlights the fact that more electrical appliances are being used without considerable care to the consumption portfolio. Moreover, there is no considerable positive influence of the energy efficient devices available in the market. This means that more people generally end up buying devices that use less optimized methods to perform their said task. This high consumption needs to be monitored and optimized to even settle on break-even point of the world consumption-production electricity graph. With the limited energy resources available, it becomes necessary to efficiently examine the energy consumed and redress ourselves accordingly. Electricity bills delivered almost everywhere in the world do not provide an appliance-based breakdown of the energy consumption. A study conducted by Google shows that information regarding the appliance energy consumption would allow users to cut their appliance use by 15 percent [3]. This would prove both instrumental in tackling the energy crisis and aid in creating a cleaner future. According to a survey conducted by Google, if half of America cuts their use of electricity by 10%, the energy saved would be the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road. As we cannot improve what we cannot measure, to help people re-evaluate their energy consumption patterns, PowerMet, a low-cost, robust and easy-to-operate assembly is brought to life. A non-invasive assembly, which will be installed on the main electrical panel will provide the users with the appliance level electrical consumption via a standalone application. The current and voltage waveforms will be processed through multiple load monitoring and disaggregation algorithms to present appliance specific graphs depicting energy consumption during the entire period of use. The real-time consumption graphs will be displayed to the user providing awareness about using high power loads and optimizing usage based on value analysis. Following the energy tips, houses are expected to save 5 to 20 percent on their annual electricity bills.