RO127698A0 - System for measuring and analyzing the energy consumption in electric devices by using consumption signatures - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for measuring and analyzing the energy consumption in electric devices by dynamically evaluating and processing the power consumption signatures. According to the invention, the system comprises a plug and socket network (1) for measuring the electrical quantities and for carrying out a radio wave connection (3, 4), a network (2) for collecting the electrical quantities from the measuring plugs and sockets (1) by means of radio waves (3, 4) and a central processing node, formed of a collection node (5) and a computing system (6), which contains the analysis program and takes over the information from the measuring network (1), locally stores said information and analyses it with the view of extracting the utilization and operation characteristics of said equipments on the basis of their energy consumption signature.

Description

The invention relates to a system for measuring and analyzing the energy consumption of electrical devices by dynamically processing and evaluating power consumption signatures. The system according to the invention is made up of a network of sockets (1) for measuring electrical quantities and connecting through radio waves (3, 4), a network for collecting (2) of the electrical quantities from sockets (1) of measurement, by means of radio waves (3, 4), and a central processing node, consisting of a collection node (5) and a computer system (6) that contains the analysis program and takes the information from the network (1 ) measuring, stores them locally and analyzes them with the purpose of extracting the use and operation characteristics of the respective equipment, based on their signature of energy consumption.

Claims: 3

Figures: 4

RO 1.27698 A0

Starting from the date of publication of the patent application, the application provides, provisionally, to the applicant, the protection granted according to the provisions of art.32 of Law no. 64/1991, except in cases where the patent application has been rejected, withdrawn or considered. being withdrawn, the extent of the protection conferred by the patent application is determined by the claims contained in the application published in accordance with article 23 paragraph (i) - (3).

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Patent application c

MEASURING SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION AL

ELECTRICAL DEVICES USING CONSUMER SIGNATURE

The invention aims to achieve a complex system for measuring the electrical parameters of a physical device during its operation and for analyzing the operating regimes of the monitored device by dynamically processing and evaluating power consumption signatures. The proposed system is composed of two components:

- the physical measuring system that supplies the monitored system and continuously measures the following electrical parameters: voltage, current and power (active).

- the analysis program that takes the consumption signatures from the measuring system, extracts the operating characteristics of the monitored system and gives an image on its operation and use patterns.

Currently there are several types of devices that can measure electrical parameters (voltage, current, power, energy) at the power lines of an electrical grid. These devices can be classified into several classes. First of all are the electricity meters, installed by the electricity suppliers to measure the energy consumption at the building or apartment level, with the purpose of charging the individual consumers. These devices are not in the possession of consumers and cannot be used by them for any purpose other than charging and in addition they offer only an overview of the consumption of all devices inside the building. Second, there are precision measuring devices that can be used to measure, usually with high accuracy, the electrical parameters of a consumer under laboratory conditions or in different test cases. These devices are usually expensive and do not deserve, from a cost perspective, to be used at the consumer level for the continuous measurement of the devices during their use. And thirdly, there are known devices for measuring the power and energy consumption that can be used both by household consumers for measuring different household devices and by business consumers for monitoring different office equipment.

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The invention is in the third class of devices and is intended for the measurement of the electrical and power consumption parameters of the electrical devices, electronics and computation during their use. Other devices such as Kill A Watt and Watts Up Pro are also known in this class. Kill A Watt is a simple and inexpensive power consumption meter that is inserted between the device to be monitored and the mains socket. This device displays measured sizes only locally, as average or instantaneous values and does not provide connectivity with other computing equipment to retrieve and store data over longer intervals. Watts Up Pro is another device for measuring voltage, current and power consumed that can store data locally or transmit it to a computer via a USB or LAN interface. However, this device is much more expensive than the first one (about 8-10 times) and is difficult to use when monitoring more devices due to the extra cables. currently there is no cheap solution for measuring power consumption and wireless connectivity with a computing system and with a solution for monitoring, storing and analyzing the monitored data from a large number of consumption monitoring sensors. Another shortcoming of the existing solutions is that they are provided in the form of separate measuring devices, which are interposed between the power outlet and the device to be monitored.

The purpose of the physical component of the invention is to provide a cheap, scalable and end-user solution (through the functionalities provided by the software component of the solution) for continuous monitoring of electrical, electronic and computing equipment from a particular location and analyzing their regimes. operation and their usage patterns based on power consumption signatures. Compared to the existing consumption measurement solutions, the invention presents some original elements. First of all, the monitoring device communicates by radio with the centralized component of the solution, on which the software component is executed, thus avoiding the additional data lines (USB or UTP) through which the communication between the nodes is realized. Secondly, the monitoring device can be controlled and configured from the software component, thus providing a flexible solution for node use. And thirdly, the monitoring device is integrated directly into the power outlet of a standard pickup, already known by the users (Fig. 1).

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The program component of the invention confers intelligence on the solution by offering the support for analyzing the consumption signatures of the various monitored devices and for controlling and configuring them. Other applications for power consumption analysis are known, including PowerMeter provided by the well-known company Google. However, these applications are limited to providing a series of reports and graphs with consumption data mediated or summed over different periods of time: time during the day, day, week, month or year. However, these applications do not provide an analysis of the energy response of a device according to its functional regime or according to its usage pattern. The energetic response of a device to a certain functional or pattern of use is called energy signature. This signature can provide a lot of information about the functional status of a device, the load, the degree of aging or wear, the defects or even how to use it. Thus, the innovative element introduced by the program component of the invention is the analysis of the energy consumption signatures of the monitored devices and the extraction of certain characteristics related to its operation or mode of use.

The problem that the invention solves, through its two components, is the inefficiency of the current consumption monitoring systems in terms of the effective reduction of energy consumption. The current systems offer an image on the distribution of energy consumption according to duration, location or equipment, on the one hand, and on the other hand they can also provide a prediction of possible consumption, costs or reductions. Based on this information end-users can make certain decisions, but experience shows that in a short time they revert to old habits and consumption increases again. Thus, the invention is intended to be a proactive system, trying to "understand" the consumer (the device) and its user, ultimately proposing certain actions with a direct effect on reducing consumption, over the lifetime of the equipment.

The problem solved by the invention is the lack of an automatic mechanism for detecting the usage patterns and operating modes of a device and recommending actions to improve the energy consumption of users.

According to the invention, by using the designed system, a solution is provided to the mentioned problem in that the data continuously measured by the sensors (sockets) of tx-2 Ο 1 1 - Ο 1 3 Ο2 - 0 5 -12-2011 consumption measurement are taken and stored on a central computing node, where processing software algorithms can be executed in order to extract the operating and use patterns. Based on these patterns, the notification rules for the user are generated in order to reduce the consumption or increase the consumption efficiency in the operating process of the monitored devices.

Following is an embodiment of the invention, described in Figures 1, 2, 3, which shows: 1, Presentation form of the measuring device; Fig. 2, Hardware / software solution architecture; Fig. 3, Scheme for the implementation of the measuring device and Fig. 4, Consumer signature detection algorithm.

in FIG. 1 exemplifies the presentation and encapsulation of the measuring devices. The measuring and communication circuits are integrated directly into the socket, so that the user does not have any additional devices to be installed. The architectural scheme of the implementation of the invention is shown in Fig. 2. The measuring sockets that are installed like the normal sockets, actually form a network of sensors for measuring the power consumption. The sockets, as nodes of the network (1), communicate through radio waves using the ZigBee standard. The nodes can communicate either with each other or with a collection node (2) connected to a computer system (3). The radio node connected to the computing system (2) has the role of taking the measurements sent by the measuring nodes (sockets) (1). Different consumers (4) are connected to the outlets, which will be introduced into the system and will be monitored continuously for the analysis of consumer signatures. This results in an architecture that is based on a central computing node that collects the values measured by the monitoring nodes and stores them locally in a database. Nodes of »

measurement can also communicate with each other to send the measured values further, if they cannot be sent directly to the central node due to the greater distance from it. The solution thus offers a good scalability in different types of infrastructures and building organizations.

in FIG. 3 is presented the diagram of the implementation of a measuring device. It contains four modules: (1) the voltage measurement module on the mains supply lines and for the management of the reference voltage Vref; (2) the module for measuring the current absorbed by the device powered by the socket, using a resistor

CK-2 0 1 1 - 0 1 3 0 2 -0 5 -is- 2011 high precision shunt; (3) the controller for reading the measurements and calculating the active power; (4) ZigBee communication module for transmitting measurements. Atmega16 microcontroller was used due to the low price and the fact that this microcontroller has the performance required to obtain repetitive measurements to a very good accuracy. Voltage reading is done using the ADC module in the controller. This module is fast enough for a rate of 150 samples at a time period T of the sinusoidal signal of the electrical network. A voltage divider was used that allows scaling for the voltage range [O-5-5V], the ADC mode does not have the possibility to read negative values so the sinusoidal signal was moved to the positive values area using the MCP6002 circuit (1). The actual measurement of the current is done by using a shunt resistor R5 = 0.05 ohms, and by measuring the voltage on the resistor we were able to deduce the value of the current (I = U / R). Also, to reduce the noise and to amplify this voltage drop on the shunt, a high precision amplifier encapsulated in the LT1167 integrated circuit (2) was used. Calibrations were performed on certain preset consumers and by normalization the actual values of current, voltage and active power were obtained.

in FIG. 4 is presented the implementation diagram of the algorithm for analyzing consumer signatures. The analysis of the measurements taken from the monitoring nodes and stored in the measurement database (1), is performed algorithmically in a few steps: (2) detecting the start time of a device start-up or activation of a specific operating program or operating mode. device. When such a moment is detected, an event is triggered that triggers the beginning of a consumer signature. For most of the equipment, the changes that appear in their operating or use regime are found in changes in the consumer signature, so that on the basis of these changes can be identified the beginning and the end of such regime. This is done in the operating detector (3), which will identify the time of the end of a use or status. Following this phase, the consumer signature will be obtained, which will then have to be normalized (4), so that it can perform the comparison of signatures and their classification. The classification of the signatures obtained during operation is compared in the last phase (5) with a standard signature database.

Claims (3)

1. The physical device for measuring the electrical quantities, including the power consumed, for the electrical, electronic and computing consumers, during their use, provides a valuable data source for identifying the operating and operating regimes of the respective consumers. These devices are integrated into the electrical infrastructure of a building and are included in the electrical outlets. The devices communicate with a central node and with each other through radio waves, using the ZigBee standard, thus forming a network of measurement sensors. 2. The architecture of the sensor network and the processing solution for the monitoring, transport, storage and analysis of the electrical parameters of the monitored electrical, electronic and computing devices. The architecture is based on a central computing node that collects the values measured by the monitoring nodes and stores them locally in a database. The measurement nodes can also communicate with each other to send the measured values further, if they cannot be sent directly to the central node due to the greater distance from it. 3. Algorithmic solution for identifying usage patterns and operating regimes of electrical, electronic and computing consumers. The analysis algorithm takes the consumption signatures from the measurement system, extracts the operating characteristics of the monitored system and gives an image on its operation and use patterns.