WO2016071734A1

WO2016071734A1 - Home electrical manager

Info

Publication number: WO2016071734A1
Application number: PCT/IB2014/065781
Authority: WO
Inventors: Chatchom SUCHARITSOPIT; Krisanachai YUDHAPA; Wallravit KHAMDEE
Original assignee: Creative Power Co.Ltd
Priority date: 2014-11-04
Filing date: 2014-11-04
Publication date: 2016-05-12

Abstract

A Home Electrical Manager home is a house which optimally controls the energy supply and demand while keeping lives and assets safe at home by the device. The Home Electrical Manager functions as a manager: by connecting appliances in the home and visualizing power supply safety standard and consumption, it purges the electrical hazards and controls energy flow and quality to minimize energy use while realizing comfort and safety. The Home Electrical Manager includes the intelligent electronics circuit interrupters, the user interface, the display and the software programmed in sets of microcontrollers. A method and apparatus to converge the electricity with the advance information technology to get the best protection and energy management.

Description

Home Electrical Manager

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to Power Electronics Engineering, Microcontroller

Programing, Electrical Engineering, Thermodynamic Engineering, Information Technology Engineering, more particularly intelligent electrical protection and management and even more particularly convergence of ICT and electricity for the safer and more comfortable lives of human beings.

Background Art

[2] People learnt to utilize the electrical power for their comfort lives long time ago.

Electrically powered equipment, such as hot plates, stirrers, vacuum pumps, electrophoresis apparatus, lasers, heating mantles, ultrasonicators, power supplies, and microwave ovens are essential elements of many world areas. These devices can pose a significant hazard to people and assets, particularly when mishandled or not maintained. Many electrical devices have high voltage or high power requirements, carrying even more risk. The severity and effects of an electrical shock depend on a number of factors, such as the pathway through the body, the amount of current, the length of time of the exposure, and whether the skin is wet or dry. Water is a great conductor of electricity, allowing current to flow more easily in wet conditions and through wet skin. The effect of the shock may range from a slight tingle to severe burns to cardiac arrest. In addition to the electrical shock hazards, sparks from electrical equipment can serve as an ignition source for flammable or explosive vapors. Even loss of electrical power can result in extremely hazardous situations. Flammable or toxic vapors may be released as a chemical warms when a refrigerator or freezer fails. Fume hoods may cease to operate, allowing vapors to be released into the work area. If magnetic or mechanical stirrers fail to operate, safe mixing of reagents may be compromised.

[3] There are various ways of protecting people and assets from the hazards caused by electricity, including insulation, guarding, grounding, and electrical protective devices. Many existing protections including ones mention earlier are reactive measures. When we are reactive, we're one step behind. We've not seen that issue or need, and we're not even aware that there's a problem. The protection measures implemented just to make the occurrence of the hazards harmless to people or assets. However the measures do not guarantee 100% safe. Conversely, proactive is one step ahead. It's actively looking for issues or needs and correcting thembefore an incident occurs. Inherent electrical hazards that are not obvious to the people but can cause severe damages like electric shock, electrocution, fires, and explosions are

[4] > damaged or frayed electrical cords

[5] > overload use of extension cords [6] > multi-plug adapters not equipped with circuit breakers or fuses

[7] > water or chemical spills on or near electrical equipment

[8] > insufficient electrical cord insulation

[9] > no path to ground

[10] > Oversize Circuit Breaker

[11] > forget to disconnect the power source before servicing or repairing electrical equipment

[12] > etc.

[13] People who have electrical hazard training are more aware of potential problems. If they see a circuit box blocked inappropriately, they are more likely to report it to their experts or trusted technicians. The same is true if they see exposed electrical wiring or frayed cords. Trained workers become aware of the dangers of stepping on or over electrical cords. However, the electrical users are not really aware of these hidden dangers and always become the victims of electricity eventually though most of these fatalities could have been easily avoided. With IT fast growing technology, it is now possible to be more proactive and protect our valuable lives and assets before we are aware of what happen.

[14] The emerging of advance ICT enable ICT and power convergent concept possible.

Smart grid is one of the example. However, the smart grid is for the utility's benefits. People still need more solution to make them live safely, comfortably and economically with electrical energy. ICT make it possible to actively manage electricity for the mentioned purpose.

Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[15] The need to integrate ICT and power technology together for the best safety and comfort leads us not to rely on conventional electromechanical breakers. The conventional circuit breakers cannot address many electrical hazards that cost human's lives and assets because they rely mainly on electromagnetic force or heat to activate their internal mechanism while many electrical hazards do not create high heat or strong electromagnetism to make the internal mechanic works. The characteristic curve of electrical voltage, current, phase and frequency can tell the engineers the abnormality of electricity long time ago. Nevertheless, there is now measure to embeded the knowledge and skill of the best engineering practice into the conventional breakers. It is the problem of finding the right solution that is sensitive enough and can detect that abnormality like a good engineer does and process the protection mechanism immediately before the hazardous are formed. However, the choice of a fault detection sensitivity is not to compromise between speed of detection and avoidance of nuisance trips. The conventional breaker fault protection does not allow the ability to reset a nuisance trip, make it impossible to enable more sensitive trip thresholds to be used. Moreover, the breaker cannot be remotely switched on off which is essential for Home Electrical Management which can go as far as appliance control through Power Line Communication.

[16] Prior arts of electrical protection system leave room for improvement. Either they provide only particular solution or limit their application to electrical protection.

Technical Solution

[17] The Home Electrical Manager is the solution to make safety and comfort possible for the electrical users. The robust solid state switch is used for this application to make the intelligent circuit interrupter possible. There are no moving parts, so the response time is generally quicker and the users can get the power restored very quickly. The solid state switch is also easily reset by using an electrical signal. The switch can be controlled to, in effect, have a partial closure with a time averaged resistance other than zero or infinity. It is also capable of withstand inrush current due to specific loads such as lights which generally damages the contacts of relay. In addition, the solid state switch is not sensitive to shocks and vibrations because there is no mechanical moving part.

[18] The Home Electrical Manager contains 5 essential parts. The first part is the

detection part, the second is the processing and decision part. The action parts are the third part which is the switch part and the forth part which is the user interface part. The final part is the display part. In one aspect of the invention, the microcontroller is used to be the central brain of everything including configuration. In an advantageous embodiment, the power monitor chip is used to detect the V, I, Phase and frequency of the AC input. In another advantageous embodiment, current, voltage and frequency sensing circuits comprising prural of op-amps are used. All present electrical hazards are mostly covered with the design especially the arc fault, over/under voltage, electrocution from flood etc. In a further embodiment, the AC input and the digital signal are isolated using silicon lab isolator chip. In another embodiment, the Home Electrical Manager can manage all electrical devices and electricity through another microcontroller which communicate with the user through smart devices. In a further embodiment, the Home Electrical Manager includes learning microcontroller which is useful for loads that are rapidly and repetitively engaged and disengaged to give a good description of the load making the electrical safety management and energy management more effective in a short time and with a high level of confidence.

[19] The Home Electrical Manager is embeded with operating system that allows users to manage a network of home devices from different vendors. Special application modules like drivers provides logic to operate the multiple devices. It is our intention to use power line communication for this purpose.

Advantageous Effects

[20] The Home Electrical Manager is designed to simplify human lives and household work and enable human beings to perform some risk tasks with electrical devices. It is the convergence of electricity and ICT making the smart homes and users. The con- ventional circuit breakers although are designed to protect lives and assets of the human beings, they can only mitigate the problems or hazards but not really protect. To really protect human beings from electrical hazards, the device should be able to alert and cut the electrical threat off before the incidents. The integration of microcontroller into the electronics interrupter enable the device to read the electrical waveform and detect the abnormallity that can cause hazards or manage the electricity usage. These with engineering knowledge embedded in microcontroller will activate the protection mechanism or manage the loads. The invention goes further to control the home electrical devices through Power Line Communication. Although home automation has been around for centuries, the problem of integration of multi- vendor devices has not been solved. The Home Electrical Manager will have the operating system built-in in some versions to operate the network of distributed home electrical devices. This will provide user-friendly control of energy and electrical devices and result in more comfortable lives. The smart device will be used as a tool to access the Home Electrical Manager fundtions. The Home Electrical Manager is far more than the conventional electrical circuit breaker. Equipped with sets of microcontrollers, it analyzes electrical waveform, activates the protection and alerts the users while at the same time enables users to program and control all home electrical devices through power line communication.

Description of Drawings

[21] The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and

distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The other aspects, features and advanteges of some preferred embodiments thereof, given by way of example only, are apparent from the following drawings which are not necessary drawn to scale.

[22] Figure 1 is at least one of the schematic representations of the invention

[23] Figure 2 is another aspect of the schematic representations of the invention

[24] Figure 3 is the samples of waveforms of electical devices commonly used and the aggregrated waveform of the appliances from a-e

[25] Figure 4 is the CBEMA curve showing the tolerance envelope of general

electronics devices

[26] Figure 5a-d are some of the flow diagram of the microcontroller algorithm and the detection block and IC in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[27] Figure 6 is the block diagram of the construction of the Home Electrical Manager in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[28] Figure 7a-c are the detection circuitry schematic block diagram in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[29] Figure 8 is the flow diagram of the detection signal in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[30] Figure 9 is the schematic block diagram of the central processing unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[31] Figure 10 is the solid state switch circuit diagram in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[32] Figure 11 is the schematic block diagram of the user interface and programmable interface microcontroller in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[33] Figure 12 are a screen shot of a display generated by a GUI and the program

process flow in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[34] Figure 13-15 are the table of ventilation holes needed to cool the circuit and the calculation of ventilation in accordance with an embodiment of the present inveniton.

[35] Figure 16 is an example of the trip performance of the solid state switch in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[36] Figure 17 is a Natural cooling design of the Home Electrical Manager in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[37] Figure 18 is the main control center operating system concept for the Home

Electrical Manager in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

Disclosure

[38] The present inventions now will be descirbed more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of invention are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements.

[39] The various features and advantages of these inventions will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the currently preferred embodiment.

[40] The Home Electrical Manager is to replace the conventional electrical circuit

breaker needed in every building. The main function of electrical protection is handled by the electronics switch, SCR or IGBT together with relay, The design of the swtich to be an interrupter is such that it is rated at least 120% of maximum load current and activated by the command from Microcontroller. At least the snubber is used to suppress the transient or circuit reactance to the switch. The microcontroller is programmed to detect the abnormality of power quality according to the CBEMA graph in Fig. 4 to activate the switch should the power quality is out of the safe region. The drawing depicts in schematic form only some of the possibility of the design. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements, the Home in this case means any type of premises including but not limit to homes, offices, boats, yards, etc.

[41] As the name implies, the Home Electrical Manager is designed to manage the eletrical power. Besides its common protection features similar to the conventional circuit breaker, the Home Electrical Manager is designed to protect the lives and assets of the human beings from other electrical threats that appear in the voltage or current waveform of the electrical supply e.g. arc, flooded outlet, lightning surge etc.

Specifically, sets of dectection circuits monitor the voltage, current and frequency supplied to the loads. According to the Fig. 6, the detection circuit will send the interrupt signal to the microcontroller which is configured to collect all the signals received and guage if the signals satisfy the conditions, the trip or alert signal should be sent to the appropriate circuit. It is common to those skill in the art that every electrical hazards will generate abnormality signal in the electrical waveforms. The significant of the abnormality is determined by the threshold set forth in the dectection circuits. The threshold parameters used at least are the frequency, amplitude of V and I, the phase angle and power factor, and last but not least the zero crossing characteristic. Fig. 1 and 2 are some of the embodiments for the detection circuits. The power monitor MCP39F501 or alike is used in Fig.2 circuit to help monitor the parameters. It is to those skill in the arts to understand that SOIC for power monitoring is not limited to only those designed in this invention.

[42] Fig. 3 illustrates waveforms of common electrical devices used in many premises.

Each particular device possess its own waveform signature which is periodic and predictable. However, in real world situation, not one device is operated alone, therefore the aggregated waveform of Fig. 3g will be presented in the circuit. In one embodiment, it is this invention to identify the abnormality in the waveforms through dynamic change in some or all parameters and their consistency. Fig.5a denotes Zero crossing information of the waveform as one key parameter in several aspects of the invention. In another embodiment, the microcontroller limit the supply electricity to the load or loads. In many instances, the power source can be either three phases or single phase or may from more than one source. In several embodiments, the microcontroller of the invention is configured to select the proper source as per information stored in its buffer for the best energy management.

[43] Fig. 6 demonstrates the block diagram of the Home Electrical Manager circuitry.

The figure illustrates 5 essential blocks of the design. The supply of power to the loads is monitored by the microcontroller and interrupted when necessary. The detection circuitry comprises voltage sensing, current sensing and band pass filter. There is also earth leakage circuit module in the detection circuit which will check the difference of the current in the line and neutral of each phase. It is understable to those skilled in the art that the imbalance of the current between two conductors (suply and return) run through a sensing coil indicates the risk of electrocution to the human beings touching the electrical devices under this circumstance.

[44] The supply frequency pulse e.g. 50 Hertz pulse from the optocoupler is to be the reference of signal from detection circuitry. Together with the detection signal from detection circuit, the phase angle of abnormality is calculated. Fluctuation on different angle denotes particular loads or situations. For those skilled in the art, it is understood that special engineering skill is needed to configure the microcontroller to perform specific action on particular signature. At least three types of action are set for the invention-warning, cutting or reconnecting depending on the severity of the incidents.

[45] Fig.7a-c is the block diagram of the detection circuit. In one further embodiment the highly integrated, single-phase power-monitoring IC designed for real-time measurement of input power for AC power supplies, power distribution units and industrial applications is used together with miscelleneous voltage sensing, current sensing and band pass filter circuits using multiple opamps as per one embodiments in Fig.7b. It is common for those skilled in the arts that there are many different ways to design the sensing circuits to achieve the same results. The design adds power monitoring to the applications with minimal firmware development. The detection circuit sends out the logic signal to the Microcontroller for further process. The detection circuit inlcudes multiple op-amps for detection accuracy and stability. Besides the detection for the control on-off of the interrupter, another circuit block diagram in Fig.7c is used to warn the users of the power safety standard breach e.g. reverese Line-Neutral or missing ground connection that can, in negligence, hurt the human beings. This function will not interrupt the circuit but warning will alert the users to be careful when operate any electrical devices. It is to inform the users to correct the circuit in compliance with electrical safety standard to avoid any incidents.

[46] The central processing module includes CMOS 8-bit microcontroller with 8K bytes of in-system programmable Flash memory. Fig. 9 displays microcontroller used in one of the embodiment of present invention. For those skilled in the arts, other types of microcontroller can also be used to achieve the claimed result of the invention. Fig.5a and b are some of the embodiments of present invention in controlling the SSCB to prevent electrical hazards to the lives and assets of the human beings. Interrupt signal received from the detection circuit will be counted and determine if the interrupt signal is severe especially harmful to the loads or personnel or may cause fire. Moreover, although the problems are not severe, the reverese polarity of Line and Neutral and the lacking of ground connection to earth can harm the people in negligence. Microcontroller will send the warning signal to the display module to inform the users the standard breach of electrical connection in the premises that require correction. In some embodiments of the present invention the main microcontroller also receive the signal from the programmable interface microcontroller. This user interface microcontroller will enable the users to program some electrical limits of the interrupter e.g. maximum current, load current, sources etc or retrieving the information from the main microcontroller for further analysis. The main microcontroller may include the redundant controller in the heavy usage application or harsh environment.

[47] The solid state switch module is operated in such a way that its maximum current limit is only 80% of the rated current. The snubbers and the relays are added in extra to extend the life of the switches. Fig.10 is the circuit diagram of one further embodiment. The switch can be either SCR or IGBT. Other types of solid state switch that can be microcontroller controlled is also applicable. The trip characteristic of the switch is shown in Fig.16.

[48] Fig. 11 is the schematic block diagram of the user interface and programmable interface microcontroller in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The Home Electrical Manager limit can be user configured. The electrical torelant envelope as per Fig.4 set forth in the main microcontroller can be redefined by the users as they find appropriate. However, the maximum current redefine cannot be higher than 95% of the rated current. Besides redefining the limit, the interface microcontroller receives the command from the users to preset the value of the reports and alerts. It is to those skilled in the art to understand that the GUI set up as per Fig.12 is not limited. The information from the main microcontroller can be manipulated in variety of forms depends particularly to the specific requirement.

[49] The system and method of the present invention provide fast and accurate

operation, due in part to direct encoding and decoding from the detected signal without delay some prior arts required before imposing trip signal.

[50] In one embodiment, the Home Electrical Manager is assemblied in such a way to leave room for passive or natural ventilation since the components are sensitive to high temperature. The architecture of the housing or enclosure in one advantageous embodiment is to provide empty space for exchanging heated internal air with cool outside air. If allowed to vent out the top, the heated air will rise - drawing new cooler in at the bottom. This causes quite a strong convection current within the enclosure. The ventilated enclosure should generate an air flow rate which minimizes the average and the maximum temperature rise inside the enclosure. Table in Fig.13 calculates the number of vent holes needed per ventilated area and the Line graph in Fig.14 display the different types of vent hole effectiveness. The calculation sample is shown in Fig.15. In further advantageous of this embodiment the chimney structure like of the enclosure at the top channels heated air rising from the power electronic components e.g. SCR or IGBT or Relay, situated at the lower part of the enclosure to the top of the chimney structure. Natural air turbulence within the enclosure is generated due to the internal aluminium cooled surface lying inside the enclosure which increase air circulation velocity. Natural cooling is acheived as per design in Fig.17.

[51] The Home Electrical Manager in accordance with the present invention will incorporate the operating system to manage the network of various vendors' electrical devices connected to the power as per Fig.18. It is the intention of this invention that the Home Electrical Manager will manage the devices through Power Line Communication. However, different mediums will be included e.g. bluetooth, wifi, 4G etc.

Claims

The Home electrical manager with electronics interrupter, control and user interface that is designed to not only protect the lives and assets of the human beings but also manage the energy and electrical devices of the premises, comprising:

a detection module electrically connected to the main AC supply to monitor the waveform

a microcontroller coupled to the input of the solid state switch and the output of the detection module

a set of solid state swtiches electrically connected between the main AC supply and the loads, where the switch includes DC supply.

a user interface module connected to the microcontroller

a display unit connected to each of the solid state switch and the user interface.

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein the detection module comprises at least current sensing, voltage sensing, band pass filter and power monitor IC.

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein microcontroller can be reconfigured to perform particulat action in accordance with more new signals received from detection module

The detection module of claim 2, wherein the sensing circuitry is configured to detect any abnormalities from power quality tolerant envelope of Fig.4 or the current or voltage or frequency or current and voltage or current and frequency or voltage and frequency abnormalities that can cause injuries or fire.

The detection module of claim 2, further comprising sensing circuitry connected to the microcontroller and configured to sense the waveform abnormalities flowing through the solid state switches.

The detection module of claim 2, wherein the sensing circuitry comprises multiple op-amps.

The detection module of claim 2, wherein the power monitor IC comprises dual- channel delta sigma ADCs, a 16-bit calculation engine, EEPROM and a flexible 2-wire interface, accuracy capable of 0.1% error across 4000:1 dynamic range. The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is configured to send the trip signal to the solid state switch in accordance with at least one predetermined operational characteristic

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is configured to send the activation signal every 1 second to the solid state switch when at least one predetermined operational characteristic is false

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is configured to send the activation signal every 1 second to the solid state switch for 5 seconds until the predetermined operational characteristic problem is cleared

The set of solid state switches of claim 1 where in the switch comprises an SCR or IGBT

The set of solid state switches of claim 1 where in a snubber is connected to each solid state switch

The set of solid state switches of claim 1, wherein one of the predetermined operational characteristics is a trip or maximum current threshold.

The set of solid state switches of claim 1, wherein one of the predetermined operational characteristics is a rated current.

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, further comprising:

a programmable interface microcontroller connected to at least one of the communication connectors and the main microcontroller and send the configuration to the main microcontroller

a main microcontroller is configured to respond to the messages sent by the interface microcontroller

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein the main microcontroller operation to control the solid state switch is modified by the predetermined configuration received from the interface microcontroller

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein the main microcontroller is configured to generate signals that illuminate the LEDs or convey information to the display panel

The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein each solid state switch is connected to either three LEDs or display panel

The user interface module of claim 1, wherein another microcontroller is configured to receive message from users and send to main microcontroller The user interface module of claim 1, wherein at least one communication connector allowed connection with the smart device which generates a GUI that conveys information between the Home Electrical Manager and the users The Home Electrical Manager of claim 1, wherein an operating system embedded to manage the network of various vendors' electrical devices through drivers.