INNOVATING RESIDENTIAL BREAKERS
A smart residential breaker with power monitoring capabilities and the ability to be remotely toggled via a web application
MEET THE TEAM
John Deubler
William Cushing
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Chris Alsheikh
Computer Engineering
Tanzeem Salim
Electrical Engineering
OUR STORY
Rising power consumption may be attributed to the large number of home electronics the average person owns. Residential power consumers generally lack a clear concept of their power usage. This can result in wasted power, unnecessary load on the grid, and wasted money for the consumer. Anyone paying a power bill could make use of consumption analytics and the ability to remotely control their usage.
OUR VISION
The objective of our senior design project is to develop a device that can give us real time power usage from the home circuit breaker box. Our mission is to give the user an analytic of their power usage as well as an option for the customer to be able to remotely turn on and off their circuit breakers remotely.
OUR TECHNOLOGY
Our project consists of various current sensors to measure power consumption, high torque servo motors to toggle the breaker switches, and a Raspberry Pi 4 to host a Web Application
OUR PROJECT
The Power-Trip module monitors the load of each circuit at the breaker box within each residence. The measurements are sent to a web server via a raspberry pi microcontroller for consumers to access via both smartphones and personal computers. The data is displayed visually for usage history and current power usage. Consumers can remotely view power consumption on a per circuit basis to determine where power is being wasted in order to reduce wasted electricity and money.
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Power-Trip also allows consumers to control their usage remotely by using solid state relays and toggleable buttons. Users can remotely turn circuits on or off when desired. Circuits supplying essential power to devices such as the refrigerator and router—with which the system is communicating to the web app—are locked to prevent user from turning them off.
Concept Art
HOW IT WORKS
Systemic Block Diagram
The ACS7120 sensors measures the voltage and current. The Arduino receives the necessary values, processes them and sends them back to the Raspberry Pi. The raspberry Pi displays them via the web app and saves them to a database. Also, the raspberry Pi controls the load by means of solid state relays.
Hardware/ Key Components
Raspberry Pi 4
The Raspberry Pi 4 is used to host our web server for our web application written in Node JS
Raspberry Pi 4
The Raspberry Pi 4 is used to host our web server for our web application written in Node JS
01 / Raspberry Pi 4
Solid State Relays
The Solid State Relays are used to toggle the breakers
02 / Solid State Relays
Power Measurement and Arduino Pro Mini
30 amps to measure each circuit loads
03 / ACS71020 Power Measurement IC and ArduinoProMini Interfacing
Budget
