Green Box - Home Power Management System (Microcontrolled and Embedded)

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This system consists basically of a low power and low cost equipment called “Green Box” (Fig. 1), that can remain within a house power installation near the switch breakers’ box and can be used to monitor, assess and control the power used by the home appliances.

The main advantage is that once it is installed, it can remain there for a long time, since all the work is done from a distance, using Wi-Fi connection on any Wi-Fi enabled device like laptop, desktop or even tablets and cell phones.

This invention, besides keeping you away from scary and unexpected high priced electricity bills, helps you secure your home from the danger of a forgotten appliance that was kept on for too long, like and electric oven.

The system consists of a 3 integrated Modules:
1. Main microcontroller for data processing and web serving;
2. ADC for voltage and current measurement that come from CT and VT;
3. Wi-Fi module for networking;
Features:
• Power monitoring and management through Wi-Fi (Fig. 2);
• The equipment contains 1 CRO (Car Recharging Outlet) controller, which can be set to turn on only at specific times to take advantage of the cheapest energy rates (nightly rates) available and avoid over current on the electrical system;
• Long time high power alarm (if the system detects that there is a high power usage for a long time it fires an alarm, like an electric oven or water heater) to prevent a damage to power system or even a fire;
• Voltage / Frequency monitoring (which an alarm can be set if it is out of rated values and can be used to alert the utility company to check you area);
• Check your electricity usage online to see if your kids are abusing of the A/C or other high power appliance;
• Every alert can be set up to be sent by email and follows an advice for inexperienced people of what to do with a situation;
Advantages
• Easy to install and quick set up: only need to connect to the “Green Box” through Wi-Fi to specify switch breaker current, and “mains voltage and frequency “ if not detected automatically. And also need to set the alarms and email for alert;
• Helps you keep control of your electricity bill and make big savings;
• Low power consumption system;
• Check your electricity bill up to the time, and check other months’ history;
• Normal / Advanced user Modes (normal user, has simple interface / advanced user shows more monitoring options such as power factor and reactive power).

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Rodrigo Patzlaff
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Profession:
    Engineer/Designer
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    never
  • Rodrigo's favorite design and analysis tools:
    Multisim, matlab, labview, Mplab
  • Rodrigo's hobbies and activities:
    Programming, swimming, barbecue, movies
  • Rodrigo is inspired by:
    Invent low price equipment that are useful, low cost and that generate savings for people.
  • Patent status:
    none