PROJECT PLANNING



Project Planning - Smart Home Energy Monitoring System

Abstract

Smart Energy Management Solutions will build a model to demonstrate the vision that San Diego Gas & Electric has for the future of home energy management. This model will include real time, device-specific power monitoring and switching, as appropriate. It will use a graphical user interface to provide information to the user, which includes power consumption and cost-of-use. The model will use scaled-down devices to represent real-world household appliances and the method of power management for each device or appliance. These scaled down devices will include a mini-refrigerator to represent a full-sized refrigerator, a siphon pump to represent a pool pump, a rechargeable radio-controlled car to represent a full-sized electric car, and a clothes dryer control panel with load data to represent a working clothes dryer.

Project Planning - Smart Home Energy Monitoring System

1 Project Description

1.1 Background Information

The ever-increasing demand for energy has been putting a strain on utility companies for decades. Energy companies struggle during peak usage times to provide their customers with a continuous flow of power. The result is the creation of a new tiered pricing system that attempts to reward customers who “flex their power” during peak times. With the advent of “smart meters”, energy companies are able to charge customers in real time. Unlike their energy companies, this creates a blind spot for the consumer who does not have a window into their own power usage. We at Smart Energy Management Solutions aim to fill this gap and provide the customer with an easy to use system that enables quick monitoring of the appliances in their household.

1.2 The Smart Home Energy Solution

Smart Energy Management Solutions (SEMS) will design and build a smart home energy network in order to allow the consumer to monitor and control their appliances. The system will consist of three elements: the monitoring equipment, a central communication gateway, and a tablet computer. Multiple energy monitoring modules will be produced to monitor various loads throughout the home. These modules will be capable of reporting the energy consumption of the appliances they are connected to as well as provide a virtual on/off switch. Data will be transmitted to the central base station via an ISM band radio (802.15) where it will be buffered and retransmitted over WiFi (802.11) to a tablet computer. Running on the Android operating system, the tablet will present the data in a user friendly manner over multiple graphical user interfaces. The user will be able to view past and present data of their energy consumption as well as have the ability to turn on/off their appliances from within the Android application. Most importantly, the application will be able to take into account the tiered pricing of energy and see how much their appliances are costing them at any given time of the day. This type of system will allow consumers to be more aware of their power consumption and help the power company and power consumer save ...