1634
4, NOVEMBER 2007
Remote-Controllable Power Outlet System
for Home Power Management
Chia-Hung Lien, Ying-Wen Bai, and Ming-Bo Lin, Member, IEEE
Abstract — In this paper we describe the Wireless Power-
Controlled Outlet Module (WPCOM) with a scalable
mechanism for home power management which we have
developed. The WPCOM integrates the multiple AC power
sockets and a simple low-power microcontroller into a power
outlet to switch the power of the sockets ON/OFF and to
measure the power consumption of plugged electric home
appliances. Our WPCOM consists of six scalable modules,
that is, the Essential Control Module, the Bluetooth Module,
the GSM Module, the Ethernet Module, the SD Card Module
and the Power Measuring Module, which together provide an
indoor wireless, and an outdoor remote control and monitor
of electric home appliances. We have designed a PDA control
software and remote control software which support the
Graphic User Interface, thus allowing the user to easily
monitor the electric home appliances through the PDA and
the Internet individually. In addition, we use a Short Message
Service to achieve control and monitoring through a GSM
cellular mobile phone for remote use anytime and anywhere1.
Index Terms — Home Power Management, Bluetooth, Short
Message Service, Remote-Controllable Outlet System.
I. INTRODUCTION
Home power consumption tends to grow in proportion to
the increase in the number of large-sized electric home
appliances. Home power management is required to save
energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions [1]. To
implement home power management, networked electric
home appliances with control/monitoring capabilities and
home networks without new wiring are indispensable.
Together with the construction of access networks, several
standards for wired home networks have been proposed and
developed [2].
The Plug & Play function is indispensable for a home
network so that the user can install and replace electric home
appliances without need for any special knowledge. The Plug
& Play function discovers electric home appliances in a
network, assign an ID to each appliance, and generates an
entry for controlling and monitoring the interface from the
home network [3]. However, electric home appliances without
expansive functions and a conventional power plug which
have deteriorated from their interference have made it difficult
to build such advanced systems [4].
1
Chia-Hung Lien and Ming-Bo Lin are with the Department of Electronic
Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei,
Taiwan, 106, R.O.C. (e-mail: lianhome@seed.net.tw).
Ying-Wen Bai are with Department of Electronic Engineering, Fu Jen
Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan, 242, R.O.C.
Contributed Paper
Manuscript received September 11, 2007 0098 3063/07/$20.00 © 2007 IEEE
IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 53, No.
The Home Energy Management System (HEMS) divides
the network capability by means of both minimum interface
software embedded in electric home appliances and separated
network adapters. Setting up a system without new wiring is a
major concern in a wide variety of applications such as video
monitoring, power control and the management of electric
home appliances [1]. Imagine a private home equipped with
motion, light, temperature and other sensors and actuators for
opening the door, dimming the light, controlling the heating
and so on. These sensors/actuators can be used to enhance the
individual’s lifestyle, e.g. the heating is turned on
automatically when the owner of the house comes home and
the light is switched on in rooms where motion is detected.
Existing solutions for home automation fall short in that most
of them do not address security aspects in an appropriate way
[5]-[7].
RS-232 hardware is an interface of easy design and in
popular in today’s industrial environment. However, RS-232
communications have a very big drawback in that floor
environments often generate electrical noise and transients
which can cause errors in transmission and damage to the
interface components. Another drawback of RS-232 is its
point-to-point characteristic and a distance limitation of 15 m.
A typical IP power device can remotely control all power
switches of electric home appliances. As this module is
without limitation and is conveniently applied with any
computer or software, the user need not open the computer
chassis. By use of the Internet connection with an RJ45 this
module can be connected to any computer.
Home network devices are categorized as wired devices.
The power line communications (PLC) provide high bit-rate
data services by using the power grid residing in the vast
infrastructure already in place for power distribution, which
means that the potential effect of the service could be much
higher than that of any other wire line alternative [1]. The
PLC are used to connect lighter appliances like refrigerators,
microwave ovens and washing machines. Despite the
enormous potential of the PLC, there still is skepticism about
this technology and its commercial viability. This is mainly
due to several still unresolved technical problems and
regulatory issues.
The other main category of wireless technology is radio
frequency (RF). RF technology is a more flexible technology
which allows the users to link electric home appliances that
are distributed throughout the house [7]. RF can be
categorized as a narrow band or spread spectrum. Narrow
band technology requires a clear channel uninterrupted by
other digital appliances. Since each transmitter/receiver
C.-H. Lien et al.: Remote-Controllable Power Outlet System for Home Power Management 1635

appliance transmits using its own frequency, it is unlikely to modules into a power outlet to perform the control and
interfere with other RF appliances connected to the home monitoring of the power consumption of plugged electric
network. However, if the wireless appliance is moved to home appliances, and which is set up easily and is user-
another part of the house, it is possible that interference may friendly. Moreover, the Bluetooth technology supports both
occur. This limitation makes the use of this technology point-to-point and point-to-multi-point connections. A
unsuitable for a number of home network applications [8]. collection of the PDA with Bluetooth that is connected to the
Bluetooth technology provides a universal bridge to WPCOM plugged electric home appliances via Bluetooth
existing data networks, a peripheral interface and a network is called a piconet, as shown in Fig. 1.
mechanism to form small private ad hoc groupings of
connected devices away from fixed network infrastructures.
Designed to operate in a noisy radio frequency environment
such as a home, the Bluetooth technology uses a fast
acknowledgement and frequency-hopping scheme to make the
link robust. Bluetooth technology would replace the
cumbersome cables used today to connect the PDA to any
other digital device which is part of the Bluetooth network [9].
Mobile phones have become one of the most popular
communication devices among most of the people around the
world, and the Short Message Service (SMS) is popular
among mobile phone users as a cheap and convenient method
of communicating. Therefore, SMS technology is a common
feature with all mobile network service providers. Since the
use of SMS technology is a cheap, convenient and flexible
way of conveying data, researchers are trying to apply this
technology in many different areas that are not covered by
service providers at present [10], [11].
A comparison of home power management methods is
shown in Table I. These technologies show the large
difference between indoor and outdoor communication.

TABLE I
TECHNICAL COMPARISON
Method 5
Method Method Method Method
(Our
1 2 3 4
design)
Indoor RS 232 Wired Power RF Bluetooth
commu- Ethernet Line
nication LAN Communi-
cation
Indoor PC PC PC PC and PDA or
control device Bluetooth
device with RF devices
receiver
Outdoor Tele- Internet Internet Internet Internet/
commu- phone GSM
nication network
Fig. 1. Remote-controllable power outlet system.
Remote PC PC PC PC PC/ GSM
control phone
device This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 the
WPCOM is introduced. In Section 3 the user-friendly control
A remote-controllable power outlet system (Method 5) with design is described. In Section 4 the implementation results
a wireless mechanism for home power management has been are summarized. In Section 5 our conclusions are presented.
developed in this paper. By using the Bluetooth technology,
electric home appliances can be controlled and monitored II. WPCOM DESIGN
without wire lines. The user can also manage electric home An AC power outlet is an electrical device consisting of a
appliances remotely by the GSM and Internet technologies to cord with a plug on one end and several sockets on the other.
save power, as shown in Fig. 1. We have designed the The WPCOM connected to an AC power outlet is made up of
Wireless Power-Controlled Outlet Module (WPCOM) which multiple AC power sockets, an Essential Control Module, a
integrates the multiple AC power sockets and six scalable Bluetooth Module, a GSM Module, an Ethernet Module, a SD
1636 IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 4, NOVEMBER 2007

Card Module and a Power Measuring Module. The complete the status of electric home appliances and transmitting the
block of the WPCOM is shown in Fig. 2. power status and measured data to the SD (Secure Digital)
Card Module. The complete circuit diagram of the Essential
Control Module is given in Fig. 3.

Fig. 2. The complete block of the WPCOM.

To provide a scalable configuration with different costs and

characteristics, we have designed the WPCOM based on the
function module mechanism. Table II shows the basic
functions of each module.
Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of the Essential Control Module.
TABLE II
THE BASIC FUNCTIONS OF EACH MODULE
The GSM Module is specifically designed to connect to the
Module Function
Essential Control Module thus allowing calls to be made using
GSM Module Allows a GSM mobile to send text messages to turn
electric home appliances ON/OFF and to receive up- the GSM cellular mobile phone network. Because the GSM
to-date measurement information directly Module is supplied SIM Card-free by the service provider the
Bluetooth Electric home appliances can be controlled by PDA user can use the network of his choice. The GSM Module
Module over the Bluetooth home network in the home provides a remote GSM mobile to control the system using the
Ethernet Module Allows the user to configure and monitor electric SMS. The complete circuit diagram of the GSM Module is
home appliances over the Internet
given in Fig. 4.
SD Card Module Uses an SD card for storage to hold the
measurement information
Power Measuring Shows the real time measuring power status of the
Module electric home appliances
Essential Control Executes the basic functions of the system and
Module carries out electric home appliances control

We have used the Solid State Relays (SSR) to switch each

socket into which an electric home appliance can be plugged.
SSR have been utilized to replace mechanical relays because
of their many advantages, including miniaturized
configuration, elimination of contact bounce, low-energy
consumption, decreased electrical noise, compatibility with
digital circuitry and high-speed switching performance. These
SSR also provide isolation between a control circuit and a
switched circuit.
The microcontroller in the Essential Control Module has
four functions: processing commands from the Bluetooth
Module and the Ethernet Module and SMS commands from
the GSM Module, controlling the SSR ON/OFF, monitoring Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of the GSM (SMS) Module.
C.-H. Lien et al.: Remote-Controllable Power Outlet System for Home Power Management 1637

The Bluetooth Module is a low-power embedded Bluetooth
v2.0+EDR module with a built-in high-output antenna. The
module is a fully Bluetooth compliant device for data
communication with a transmission power of up to +8dBm
and receiver sensibility of down to -83dBm combined with
low power consumption.
The Bluetooth Module delivers opportunities for rapid ad
hoc connections and the possibility of automatic, unconscious,
connections between WPCOMs. The complete circuit diagram
of the Bluetooth Module is given in Fig. 5.
measuring module via the connector. The electrical power
detector transforms the voltage signal as digitized data for the
power load microprocessor. The power load microprocessor
receives each socket datum via the multiplexer. The complete
circuit diagram of the Power Measuring Module is given in
Fig. 7.

Fig. 5. Circuit diagram of the Bluetooth Module.

The Ethernet Module is a true Serial-to-Ethernet converter

that connects electric home appliances to the Internet based on
UDP protocol, thus allowing the user to control and monitor
electric home appliances over the Internet. The complete
circuit diagram of the Ethernet Module is given in Fig. 6.
Fig. 7. Circuit diagram of the Power Measuring Module.

The SD Card Module is to store the status and measurement

data of the electric home appliances. It provides an interrupt
type of transfer mode to improve the data transfer
performance between the microcontroller and the SD Card.
The complete circuit diagram of the SD Card module is given
in Fig. 8.

Fig. 6. Circuit diagram of the Ethernet Module.

To show the actual status of the electric home appliances,

and to control the power ON/OFF we use the Power
Measuring Module, which is a measuring circuit containing
four parts: six current transformers (CT), an electrical power
detector, a multiplexer and a power load microprocessor. The
six CT are installed in the AC power outlet, as shown in Fig. 3.
The load current of each socket is measured by the CT. By
using the Hall Principal Effect the charge carriers in the CT
become deflected by the magnetic field and give rise to an
electric field which is perpendicular to both the current and
the magnetic field, as the load current changes the output
voltage signal. The voltage signal is transited to the power
Fig. 8. Circuit diagram of the SD Card Module.
Fig. 9 shows the control flow chart of the WPCOM. In the
initial mode of the WPCOM the system mechanism checks the
hardware configuration to detect which module is installed in
the WPCOM.
If the Power Measuring Module is installed in the WPCOM,
the system measures the power consumption of each socket
cyclically. The sources of the control commands can be the
1638
PDA, the Internet and the GSM. If there are no control
commands, the microcontroller stores the current power
status. If the system has received a command, it checks to
see whether the command is for the room controlled by the
WPCOM or not. If it is, the microcontroller turns the power
ON/OFF or sends power data according to the command. If
the command is not for any room controlled by the
WPCOM, the command is broadcast over the Bluetooth
home network.
Fig. 9. The control flow chart of the WPCOM program.
III. USER-FRIENDLY CONTROL DESIGN
A. Remote Control by GSM Cellular Mobile Phone
The WPCOM provides the user with a way to control and
monitor the power of electric home appliances by using GSM
cellular mobile phone as shown in Fig. 1. When the remote
user send the SMS with a control command by a GSM cellular
mobile phone to the phone number of the WPCOM, the
WPCOM receives it and checks whether the sender is allowed
to control the home network. Then the WPCOM confirms the
SMS command format. If the message fits in with the
command format, the WPCOM changes the power state of
electric home appliances or sends an SMS with the power data
to the GSM cellular mobile phone. Thus the user can control
and monitor the power state by use of the GSM cellular
mobile phone anytime, anywhere.
With a GSM module installed in a WPCOM it is possible
using a GSM cellular mobile phone to:
IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 4, NOVEMBER 2007
1. Request the current status (ON/OFF) and power
consumption of any socket in a WPCOM.
2. Set any the current status of any socket in a WPCOM to a
new status.
3. Receive a notification (alert) message that a predefined
condition has been met.
Tables III and IV show all possible commands that can be
sent via an SMS with a brief description of the command
functions. The current readings of information monitored by
the WPCOM can be requested at any time by simply sending
an SMS containing the desired command to the WPCOM, as
shown in Table III.
TABLE III
“ GET” COMMANDS
Command Execution
Get help Returns a message listing all valid commands
Get sockets Returns a message showing a summary of all
socket status
Get values Returns a message showing the current
readings of monitored power values
Get alarm Returns a message showing a summary of
alarm conditions
Example 1: Fig. 10 shows how to get the current readings
of the power monitored. The first line of the message displays
the Room name followed by a colon (:).
Fig. 10. Getting the current readings of the monitored power using SMS.
The following commands which start with the word “Set”
are used to request a power datum from the WPCOM for
changing or entering information into the unit, such as alarm
threshold values, alarm enables, entering passwords or
switching sockets ON/OFF, as shown in Table IV.
C.-H. Lien et al.: Remote-Controllable Power Outlet System for Home Power Management 1639

TABLE IV We have designed this PDA control software using

“ SET” COMMANDS Visual Studio 2005, which supports the Graphic User
Command Execution Interface (GUI) thus allowing the user to easily control
Set sockets Switches the sockets ON/OFF and monitor the electric home appliances’ power
ON/OFF. As shown in Fig. 12, the PDA shows the power
Set alarms Selects which alarms are to be enabled
status of each socket in the display area. The status fields
Set limits Sets the various alarm thresholds
show whether any electric home appliances plugged in the
Set system Sets various system values, such as the user
name, passwords etc
sockets are in use or not. The PDA shows the power
consumption and the accumulated energy used by each
electric home appliance in the display area.
Example 2: Fig. 11 shows how to switch the sockets
In the control field of Fig. 12 the PDA sets up ON/OFF
ON/OFF. The template shows the current status of the socket
and sends a command to the WPCOM immediately after
and provides the correct format for changing the settings.
pressing the “ON/OFF” button. The PDA waits for an
Setting the socket value to “1” turns the corresponding socket
acknowledge command from the WPCOM. The control
on; setting the socket value to “0” turns the corresponding
field sends its command every three seconds if it doesn’t
socket off.
receive an acknowledge command, to guarantee that the
power control command can be executed without being
lost.

Fig. 12. The GUI of the PDA control software.

C. Remote Control by Internet

Fig. 11. Switching the sockets ON/OFF using SMS.
B. Wireless Control by PDA
The PDA with Bluetooth that is connected to the WPCOM
plugged electric home appliances via the Bluetooth network
controls and monitors the electric home appliances indoor.
We have designed this remote control software using a
typical Winsock and network protocol component to
transmit/receive commands. The remote control software is
installed in the PC or the Notebook connected to the Internet.
It can control electrical home appliances when the user is
outdoor.
The structure of the network connection of the remote
control by Internet is a Host-Client structure. The client
installed remote control software sets the IP address and
PORT, then sends a request to the WPCOM, creates a link and
starts to link both client and WPCOM, as shown in Fig. 13.
The remote user can access a WPCOM with the Internet
connection.
1640
By means of the Internet the user can control and monitor
the power consumption status of the electric home
appliances. The remote control software uses a GUI which
provides the user with an easy way to control/monitor the
power status of electric home appliances.
As shown in Fig. 13, the remote control software shows
the power status of each socket at the display area. The red
light shows that the electric home appliance is in use and the
white light shows that the appliance is off. The remote
control software also shows the accumulated energy of each
electric home appliance in the display area. In the control
area the user can set up the sockets for the ON/OFF state
and send the command to the WPCOM immediately after
pressing the “Set up” button. The remote control mechanism
provides the user with a way to penetrate the Internet to
monitor and control the power status of the electric home
appliance.
Fig. 13. The GUI of the remote control software.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS
The final implementation of the WPCOM is shown in Fig.
14. The entire hardware prototype circuit of the WPCOM is
now implemented on a 5 cm × 6.5 cm printed circuit board
(excluding the SSR and sockets).
Fig. 14. The AC power plug controlled by the MCU.
IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 4, NOVEMBER 2007
By using Bluetooth the WPCOM enables the home network
user to connect a wide range of electric home appliances
easily and simply, thus eliminating the need to purchase
proprietary or additional cabling to connect individual devices.
The user needs only to follow three steps to finish installing
the remote- controllable power outlet system indoors.
1. Replace the conventional outlet with a WPCOM to
provide AC power for the electric home appliances.
2. Install the PDA control software in the PDA by which
the user controls the electric home appliances.
3. Connect the PDA to the WPCOM by the Bluetooth
search. Then the user can display and control the electric
home appliance’s power ON/OFF by using the PDA.
The WPCOM also consumes power. The average current of
a GSM Module is 65 mA with maximal 82 mA while
communicating, that of the Bluetooth Module is 33 mA and
45 mA. The average current of an Ethernet Module is 25 mA,
that of the SD Card Module, the Power Measuring Module
and the Essential Control Module is 21 mA, 23 mA and 47
mA respectively. The average power consumption of the
WPCOM can be calculated as shown in Table V. The total
power consumption of a WPCOM is about 1.04 W and
increases when the number of sockets of the WPCOM
increases.
TABLE V
THE AVERAGE POWER CONSUMPTION OF THE WPCOM MODULE
Item Average Operation Average power
current (mA) voltage consumption
(V) (W)
GSM Module 65 5 0.32
(1800MHz)
Bluetooth Module 33 5 0.16
Ethernet Module 25 5 0.12
SD Card Module 21 5 0.10
Power Measuring 23 5 0.11
Module
Essential Control 47 5 0.23
Module
Total 214 5 1.04
An additional advantage of the Power Measuring Module is
that it also detects the use status of an electric home
appliance’s power, in addition to controlling the sockets’
ON/OFF state. In this experiment the Power Measuring
Module detects an electric home appliance’s power
consumption ranging from 1 W to 1200 W. We can extend the
range to detect lower and higher power consumption from
0.47 W to 2500 W by changing the CT which can increase its
volume by half.
We have compared our design with other home power
management designs. The result demonstrates that our design
is better than others because it has more integrated functions.
The details of our comparison detail are shown in Table VI.
C.-H. Lien et al.: Remote-Controllable Power Outlet System for Home Power Management 1641

TABLE VI [4] T. Shibata, K. Ogawa, H. Takemura, and Y. Hatayama, “The new

COMPARISON OF THE HOME POWER MANAGEMENT DESIGNS architecture that realizes seamless connectivity and cooperative control
Wireless Portable Length* Setup Power for home network systems,” in Proc. ICCE ’05, pp. 149-150, 2005.
Detection [5] H. Ikebe, K. Ogawa, H. Takernura, and Y. Hatayama, “New architecture
Method 1 X Yes Line Com- X of realizing seamless connectivity and cooperative control for home
plicated network systems,” in Proc. ISCAS ’05, pp. 5341-5344, 2005.
[6] H. Nogawa, H. Tatsumi, S. Kobayashi, S. Kawai, N. Ohishi, and S.
Method 2 X X Line Com- X Akiba, ”Configurations of the Internet server with multi-home
(3-5 m) plicated environment for e-mail robustness-a state of the art,” in Proc. IWS ’99,
Method 3 X X Line Easy Yes pp. 61-68, 1999.
[7] Chia-Hung Lien, Chi-Hsiung Lin, Ying-Wen Bai, Ming-Fong Liu, and
Method 4 Yes X Line Com- X Ming-Bo Lin, “Remotely Controllable Outlet System for Home Power
plicated Management,” in Proc. ISCE '06, pp.1-6, 2006.
[8] IEEE P802.11, The Working Group for Wireless LANs, retrieved
Method 5 Yes Yes 10 m Easy Yes
September 20, 2003,from http://www.ieee802.org/11/
(Our
[9] IEEE 802.15, retrieved August 28, 2007, from
design)
http://www.ieee802.org/15/pub/TG1.html.
*Because at present the Bluetooth technology transmission length is about [10] D. Valtchev, and I. Frankov, “Service Gateway Architecture for a Smart
10-20 m, the WPCOM transmission is between 10-20 m. Other methods use a Home,” IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 126-132, 2002.
transmission line. [11] Jen-Yi Pan, Wei-Tsong Lee, and Nen-Fu Huang, “Providing multicast
short message services over self-routing mobile cellular backbone
V. CONCLUSION network,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 240-253, Jan.
2003.
In this paper a remote-controllable power outlet system and
the key components for home power management have been
Chia-Hung Lien is currently working toward the Ph.D.
developed. To realize remote control, the Bluetooth, the GSM
degree in Electronic Engineering at National Taiwan
and the Internet technologies for power management have University of Science and Technology. He received his
been integrated. The proposed WPCOM is designed for M.S. degree in electronic engineering from Fu-Jen
wireless monitoring and controlling of different electric home Catholic University in 2000. His research interests include
low power systems design, mobile computing, parallel
appliances connected over a Bluetooth network in a home architectures and algorithms, and embedded computer
environment. The WPCOM also allows a GSM cellular systems.
mobile phone using SMS and PC or Notebook using the
Internet to monitor and control electric home appliances at Ying-Wen Bai is a professor in the Department of
remote locations. Electronic Engineering at Fu-Jen Catholic University.
The field experiments reported in this paper have His research focuses on mobile computing and
microcomputer system design. He obtained his M.S. and
demonstrated that this new system can be practically Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia
implemented and provides adequate results. While this study University, New York, in 1991 and 1993, respectively.
has its limitations, it is hoped that it will serve as a basis for Between 1993 and 1995, he worked at the Institute for
further study of home power management strategies for Information Industry, Taiwan.

various electric home appliances.

REFERENCES
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[2] D.S. Kim, J.M. Lee, W.H. Kwon, and I.K. Yuh, “Design and
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[3] Changseok Bae, Jinho Yoo, Kyuchang Kang, Yoonsik Choe, and
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Ming-Bo Lin (S'90-M'93) received the B.Sc. degree in
electronic engineering from the National Taiwan Institute
of Technology (now is National Taiwan University of
Science and Technology), Taipei, the M.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from the National Taiwan
University, Taipei, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Maryland, College
Park. Since February 2001, he has been a professor with
the Department of Electronic Engineering at the National
Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan. His research
interests include VLSI systems design, mixed-signal integrated circuit designs,
parallel architectures and algorithms, and embedded computer systems.