Proceedings of the India International Science Festival- Young Scientists’ Meet Department of Science and Technology, Government of India – Dec 4-8, 2015 Paper Code: DESIG63
Development of a module to monitor daily consumption of household electricity DivyaSinghala*, PragyaRathoreb a Department of Electrical Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal, India- 462003,
[email protected] b Department of Electrical Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal, India- 462003,
[email protected] *Corresponding author
Abstract-Around 76% population of a country as vast as India has access to electricity whereas this figure is only 55.3% for the rural population. The electricity connections are provided by governmental organizations and are of post-paid type. Post-paid connections facilitate the consumers to pay after their monthly usage, but also make them unaware and negligent of their daily consumption of energy. This causes high usage of electricity which affects the consumers financially and increases the energy deficit. This electricity could have been saved had the consumer got aware of their consumption in time. Inspecting the electricity meter for daily consumption can be very tedious and inconvenient task. In this paper, we propose a very low cost, sophisticated and user friendly system that provides instantaneous consumption data to consumer available under his fingertips. Users will have the option to set their maximum monthly consumption in terms of money which will be converted into equivalent electrical units. Thereafter, an average daily maximum consumption will be obtained. Users will be alerted whenever his daily limit exceeds so that they could switch off unnecessary loads. Other trivial data such as hourly consumption, rate of consumption of energy, etc. will also be generated which can be potentially helpful to monitor their energy usage and reduces the avoidable load. In this proposed system, their energy consumption data is obtained by sensing the total current from the main line drawn by the load at consumer end. Users can access their energy consumption data through a mobile application synced with our proposed system through Bluetooth. Based on this data, appropriate actions can be initiated by the users in time to reduce the consumption if their limit crosses or is about to cross. This can help in reducing the energy deficit of the country and also the financial burden on the consumers. Keywords:Main line current (service mains), Hall Effect current sensor, Arduino board, Bluetooth
module, Android app
1. Introduction Together with the implementation of renewable energies, energy savings are crucial towards realizing sustainable development. Often, many of the appliances used at common households keep running even when they are not needed. Therefore, a significant amount of the energy consumed by these households is wasted. Making the people aware of their requirement and overall consumption of energy could help in reducing the overall energy demand as well as it will give relief to the users too by cutting down their bills. The energy meters used at our homes show us the readings of total number of units consumed by us over a particular period of time and the billing is done on its basis. But is it ever noticed in the energy meter that how much units are being used at a particular time and further how much units are being used by the unnecessarily running appliances even when there should be no usage? Wouldn’t it be great if we could get the whole detail of our energy consumption at our finger tips, i.e., on a mobile app? A model
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Proceedings of the India International Science Festival- Young Scientists’ Meet Department of Science and Technology, Government of India – Dec 4-8, 2015 Paper Code: DESIG63
together with the app, implementing the above idea was built and tested. The electricity consumption analysis and alert system consists of the following sections: i. Sensing of the main line current (through Hall Effect current sensor) ii. Conversion of signal from analog to digital iii. Energy calculation iv. Transmission of information through a Bluetooth device to the Android app
Fig. 1. Basic design idea block diagram
2. Components criteria In this section, details of the four components used for sensing current, calculating energy data in digital form, transmitting data through Bluetooth module are discussed. 2.1. Current sensing component For sensing the main line (or service mains) current, Hall Effect current sensor is used. The Hall Effect current sensor is ACS712. It provides sensing for both AC and DC current. Rating of this sensor is 5 Amps. It consists of linear hall circuit with a copper conduction path. The internal resistance of this conducting path is 1.2 mΩ typical, providing low power loss. When a current carrying conductor is placed into magnetic field, a voltage will be generated perpendicular to both current and magnetic field. This is the principle of Hall sensor. Sensor consists of 8 pins out of which, four on input side and the other four on the output side. In the input side, there are four pins in which two are connected to one side of wire and other two are connected to other side of the wire. On the other hand, output is taken is from pin 7 that gives proportional voltages. Generally it gives maximum up to 5 V output voltage in analog form.
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Proceedings of the India International Science Festival- Young Scientists’ Meet Department of Science and Technology, Government of India – Dec 4-8, 2015 Paper Code: DESIG63
Fig. 2. Pin diagram of Hall Effect current sensor
2.2. Arduino board For calculating the power and energy using algorithms, Arduino board is used. In Arduino ATmega328 microcontroller is used. Arduino input there are analog or digital pin. Digital input and output pin are 14 out of which 6 provide Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) output. There are two input pins that is pin 6 (DIP) or 8 (SMD). Flash memory is 32 KB, SREM 2KB, EEPROM 1KB etc. Also use GND and TXD and RXD pin that is transmitting pin and receiving pin. Here also connect the LED for indication for input supply. For calculating power algorithm is applied in microcontroller so that suitable output is obtain and transmitting pin. 2.3. Bluetooth Module Bluetooth module is used for receiving the data on user mobile application. HC-05 is Bluetooth module which is used for this. HC-05 module is an easy to use Bluetooth SPP (serial port protocol), designed for transparent wireless serial connection setup. Serial port Bluetooth is fully qualified Bluetooth V2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) 3 Mbs Modulation with complete 2.4 GHz radio transceiver and baseband. Bluetooth serial module is used for converting serial port to Bluetooth. It uses CSR Blue core 04-external single chip Bluetooth system with CMOS technology and with AFH (Adaptive frequency Hopping Feature). It has the footprint as small as 12.7 mm×27 mm. These modules have two modes: master and slave device.The work mode of the module can be switched by controlling the module PIN (PIO11) input level. This small module will run on 3.3 V power with 3.3 V power signal. The module will have two modes of operation like command mode and data mode. This module includes the radio and memory chip, 25 MHz crystal, antenna and RF matching network. In this module basically VCC, GND, TXD, RXD these pins are used. For connecting Arduino with Bluetooth module bread board and 9 V battery is required. This module is connected to Arduino by these pins. This is shown in figure 2.
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Proceedings of the India International Science Festival- Young Scientists’ Meet Department of Science and Technology, Government of India – Dec 4-8, 2015 Paper Code: DESIG63
Fig. 3. Connection diagram of Arduino and Bluetooth module
3. Working In this section, working of components and their processes are discussed. This section is divided in 3 steps to enhance the understanding of the whole process. 3.1. Sensing process In sensing process there is a Hall Effect current sensor which placed over main line or service mains. Using the principle of Hall Effect, it senses the current into proportional voltage approximately 3-5 V in analog form. In this sensor there is Hall chip which is place over conductor and conductor produce magnetic field proportional to the current it is carrying. It gives 5 V in terms of proportional voltage. This voltage is in analog form. In Arduino there is A/D (Analog-to-Digital) converter that converts this voltage into digital form. 3.2. Power analysis process In this process digital input voltage is used. According to the principle of Hall Effect, it senses current in proportional of voltage, so there is some constant value. Using programming, current is calculated by multiplying that constant value to digital input voltage. LED is connected to the Arduino board that glows when input supply is obtained. This output of current sensor is connected to RXD pin of Arduino board. Using microcontroller programming, use this output value and fix the line voltage 230V. Power is calculated. There is a clock pulse in Arduino board and using this, energy is calculated as the clock pulse increases. For each clock pulse, Arduino sets the data output whatever the bit should be. After getting energy, Units of electricity and per unit cost also calculated. For user indication set the limit of energy consumption or Units for per hour or per day. In Arduino, whole calculation is done by programming. 3.3. Sending process In this process HC-05 Bluetooth module is used. Data obtained from Arduino board is to be used as an input for this module. In module using VCC, TXD, RXD pins data is receive in Bluetooth module. The role of modes at the automatic connection work mode is that when the module is at the automatic connection work mode, it will follow the default way set lastly to transmit the data automatically. When the module is at the order-response work mode, user can send the AT command to the module to set control parameters and sent control order. Connection between Arduino board and Bluetooth module is shown in Figure 3.In which RXD to D10, TXD to D11 and VCC to 5 V and GND to GND are connected. Range of this module would be approximately 10 m. First, pairing between module and Arduino occurs. DESIG63-4
Proceedings of the India International Science Festival- Young Scientists’ Meet Department of Science and Technology, Government of India – Dec 4-8, 2015 Paper Code: DESIG63
To send the message through Bluetooth module programmed the Arduino. So whenever mobile comes in this region, indication message is send by android application. In android application programming is done in such a way that users get indicated whenever they cross their daily limits and also that their usage data is reset after a particular set time interval. Electrical Units (KWh) can also be set for a particular time, so when reading reaches near the set units it will indicate the user by sending the message or notification. This message will contain number of units consumed, their cost and how much energy is consumed by the user. In mobile application there is an option of setting the reset time and set the certain limit units after which user want to be aware of it.
4. Results To indicate the energy usage data, first, current sensor senses the current. This analog signal will then be converted into digital signal by Arduino. Energy consumption is calculated per clock pulse by programming the digital signal output. The number of pulses produced at the output of microcontroller is proportional to the power consumed by load connected in user home. This digital output can be obtained on user mobile application. This is shown in Figure 4. In mobile application, users will have an option to set their maximum limit in a day. For indication, users will have a notification on or off button. In app using history option user can see the previous result and compare that latest one.
Fig 4. Mobile application screen
5. Future scopes This paper gives a basic idea about the indication of used electrical energy in household in a specific time. This system is entirely designed for single phase, but this can be further extended to work on three phase. Users will get an alert when his daily maximum usage limit is reached. But this model can be further developed and modified to analyze the usage characteristics of each of the connected loads separately. By the data obtained, the user can get an idea of the energy consumed by a particular load and for how much time that load was used. Through the app, the usage of electrical energy by the various loads connected to the main line could then be set separately, so that less energy is wasted by the unnecessarily running devices or loads. By adding online billing option or prepaid electricity option its significance will be better. Using Bluetooth limits, the region to a very small area in which the data could be sent to the mobile. So, in place of Bluetooth, a Wi-Fi connection can be used, which is a better option.
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Proceedings of the India International Science Festival- Young Scientists’ Meet Department of Science and Technology, Government of India – Dec 4-8, 2015 Paper Code: DESIG63
6. Conclusion The energy consumption indicator system will experience significant changes in the upcoming years. The proposed model for usage at households provides an effective means to reduce the demand of electrical energy. When implemented, it could help a lot to overcome the increasing energy crisis by efficient utilization of the available electrical energy. It is very reliable also.
7. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank and show their gratitude towards their respective departments and institute, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, (M.P.) India for their support.
8. References G.Thavasi Raja and T.D.Sudhakar, “Electricity Consumption and Automatic Billing through Power Line”, on 8th International Power Engineering Conference (IPEC 2007) Poulomi Ghosh and Abhisek Maiti, “Instantaneous Power Measurement using Hall Sensor”, on International Journal of scientific and Research Publications, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2012. Web sites: Web-1: http://www.linotux.ch/arduino/HC-0305_serial_module_AT_command_set_201104_revised.pdf consulted on 23 Nov. 2015. Web-2: www.arduino.cc consulted on 23 Nov. 2015. Web-3: www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-AND-Bluetooth-HC-05-Connecting-easily/ consulted on 23 Nov. 2015. Web-4: http://www.allegromicro.com/en/Products/Current-Sensor-ICs/Zero-To-Fifty-Amp-IntergratedConductor-Sensor-ICs/ACS712.aspx consulted on 23 Nov. 2015.
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