[Contest Entry] In-Home Power Monitoring Device
bradley.s.campbell
Posts: 1
My intention is to use the Spinneret to collect power consumption data from circuits in a typical 120/240 VAC home power distribution setup, particularly the primary service cabling (as this indicates full household consumption) to give a real-time snapshot of power consumption in the home. I also plan to show how to monitor individual circuits of interest and will use the Spinneret to build an internet-accessible monitoring interface. I also plan to discuss (and to hopefully demonstrate): (i) the possibility of using the Spinneret in an internet-connected manner to individually control circuits in the household by means of relayed circuitry on individually-breakered circuits and/or devices, and (ii) using the Spinneret as a networked device in a secured internet-accessible home network environment using means such as text messaging, etc. to communicate with the device from outside the network perimeter (i.e. across the internet) to perform these tasks. I hope to implement a software-based facility on the Spinneret to display consumption data by charting to give various visualizations of power consumption over different spans of time; however, if this proves infeasible in the timeframe of completion for the project, I will demonstrate how this can be done through a third-party API such as Google Charts (or similar service).
I also plan to use the course of documenting the build to discuss basic electrical/electronic engineering concepts such as power consumption, current/voltage transformation, power factor, and multiplexing.
Additionally, there are considerations that must be accounted for to make a project like this work effectively in a typical SOHO-networking setup. I plan to document a general procedure for prepping a home network to work for this project and to deal with (and to the best of my ability, explain) issues such as authentication and internet/network security to protect a system like this from mischief.
I also plan to use the course of documenting the build to discuss basic electrical/electronic engineering concepts such as power consumption, current/voltage transformation, power factor, and multiplexing.
Additionally, there are considerations that must be accounted for to make a project like this work effectively in a typical SOHO-networking setup. I plan to document a general procedure for prepping a home network to work for this project and to deal with (and to the best of my ability, explain) issues such as authentication and internet/network security to protect a system like this from mischief.