CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The common everyday experience of human today is the increasing
volumes of what to do, when to do them and how to get them done. Time is the
most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions. Human life is
usually more complex and full of activities which move almost round the clock.
It sometimes appears that the 24 hours of the day is not sufficient to carry out
the work to be done. If one is not careful, it may be too late, at times to discover
that what is urgent and important is left undone while non-important issues are
attended to. Sometimes, one may bear the burden of the cluster of what to do
and what time to finish up.
Since time is man’s most precious asset, technological advancement has
made things simpler and easier for us through the concept of automation, which
is the use of control system to reduce the need for human work in the
production of goods and services. Rapid development in electronics
technologies and their integration in smart home devices have made home
automation to become the singular most important form of automation for
humans. Modern homes use many appliances like refrigerator, air conditioner,
electric bulbs, TV etc, for comfortable human life. These home appliance and
devices as well as heavy machinery and equipment use industry and factories
consumes a lot of electrical energy, and electrical energy is an important natural
resource.The ever increasing population all over the world results in a
proportional increase of the demand for electrical energy. Also, cost and energy
generation has been an issue of great concern in the use of electricity. And the
operators may not be at places or maybe somewhere in a different place, and if
the necessity arises to control these different appliances. The advancements in
various fields have made industries to shift their work pattern from manual
working to an automated working style. This again adds on the pressure upon
the energy requirements. The economic growth of a country is at the mercy of
its energy resources and this shall be resolved by developing constructive
measure in conserving and managing the available resources. Hence it is based
on this that this project focuses on having there some source to control and
monitor the different appliances more effectively and efficiently at anytime
through time automated device. This assures to save the cost on electricity by
using it wisely instead of wasting it unknowingly.
 Time automated device is a controlling system that takes over the task of
switching ON/OFF the home appliances with respect time. This device replaces
the manual switching to automatic switching of home appliance based on
microcontroller and other electronic design to achieve the above stated
purposes. It is important to note that regulation of time in the electrical power
system is not meant to for cost and energy reduction but also for the safety of
the system infrastructure and the human users. The microcontroller is used to
monitor the action of the device and the control the entire set of operations. It
will have an in-build clock which will tracks over time, once the time is set and
the device is activated, it remains ON till the set time elapses. When this time is
equals to the programmed OFF time of a device, then the corresponding device
is switch OFF.

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Today traditional wall switches situated in various parts of the home makes
it laborious for end user to go near them to control and operate. Evidence of
this are the many cases of fire outbreaks which have in most cases reported
to be related to electrical causes. Fire outbreak leads to loss of lives and
properties. Researches made on causes of high cost and energy consumption
for domestic and industrial use, show that a large percentage of the causes of
fire outbreak are due to human error in the use of power handling devices
such as the sockets, and switches. These switches required human attention,
which is time consuming. Having been accustomed to manual switching, it
may be difficult to identify its drawbacks. These will be discussed in detailed
below;
1. Misuse and wastage of electricity: Most industries as well as our home
are face with the misuse and wastage of electricity. Sometime due to
carelessness of the person electric bulbs, refrigerator or fans are left ON
which result in wastage of electricity.
2. Cost: The cost associated with the use of prepaid meter at home, if home
appliances are left ON can attract high cost or the supply will turn OFF if
the prepay meter run out credit.
3. Manpower cost: In some industries a lot of manpower is utilized just to
operate some devices at particular interval of time. This is made up of the
salaries and allowances paid to the operators of this devices as well as the
cost of taking out risk insurance for them.
 4. Opportunity cost: The manpower used for the operations of these
devices could have been more effectively deployed elsewhere. This time
also may have may have been use for other purpose.
From the forgoing, human inefficiency can be checked if the home
appliances are equipped with some level of control intelligent. It is evident
that there is a need for an alternative method of switching, which this project
will help overcome the entire problem outline above.

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aim is to design and implement a microcontroller based time automated
devices for home appliances that has the ability to save cost and energy by
regulating the duration of power output from the socket, display the
operational time on a screen and a reliable circuit that takes over the
switching the electrical devices ON/OFF with respect to time. Switch OFF
the device when the time elapses. On successful completion, the project is
expected to achieve the following objectives;
 To save energy and reduce cost by providing a means of monitoring
power duration.
 To ensure that fire outbreak due to human mistake in the use of power
handling devices are drastically reduced.
 An automated system that will not be laborious for end user to control
and operate.
 An automated system that will provide energy conservation through
scheduling, controlling and monitoring the appliance.
 Above all, to ensure that human lives are safe when using power
sockets for home appliances.

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The benefits of this design work will help to conserve electric energy which
most times are taken for granted by consumers. It will also help the industries,
Churches, Schools and home to switch ON/OFF their devices with little or no
human attention. It will also make life very easy and serves as a pedestal of a
comfortable living without compromising on the efficiency of appliance. Using
this system one can save time that it can work independently as an automated
circuit.
The various homes through the study of this work will help monitor some
hazardous and real time scheduling and development of the system has a huge
potential of minimizing energy wastage in various appliance such as domestic
and industries electrical appliances. Economically, it will enhance the life span
of the appliance and reducing the maintenance expenses.

1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION

The main goal of this project is to develop a microcontroller based time
automated device for home appliance. However, these are two scopes to be
covered in this project. Firstly, is to use appropriate electronic components to
integrate with microcontroller for this system. Secondly, is to use
microcontroller that can fulfil the requirement of the target system.
1.5.1 Use of appropriate electronic components to integrate with
microcontroller for this system. The system will have an actuator device such as
relay to control some external device and to switch voltages or current. And
push button switch will be use to set time and LCD to display the clock, and a
lot more. These components will be integrated with the microcontroller to
automatically control devices, the system works when microcontroller is ON,
and when time equal to the programmed time, then the corresponding device is
switch ON and at the end of time the device is switch OFF.
1.5.2 Design and implement the system using microcontroller that can fulfil the
requirement of the target system. The microcontroller will monitors the action
of electrical appliance and control the entire set of operations. Since normal
home automation which required human attention to switch ON/OFF home
appliance. The depth of my work on this project will build a system that will be
time operated which will not require human attention.
However, the design and implementation of this project is restricted to a close
door system and it is thus limited in this regard.

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Vcc – This is the supply voltage of the circuit which is 5volts
GND – This supply means ground
Diode: It is used as rectifier, i.e. for converting alternating current into direct
current, diode conduct in only one direction.
Capacitor: Device that stores electric energy.
Microcontroller: A small special purpose computer on a chip that carries out
multi-functions.
Resistor: This is an electronic device which opposed the flow of electricity.
Relay: Electromagnetic switch that switches in two directions either at Normal
Open (NO) or Normal Close (NC). It is also used to switch heavy load.

1.7 PROJECT REPORT ORGANIZATION

The project report is organised to describe exhaustively the steps and measures
taken to achieving this project actualization. These steps and measure are group
into five (5) chapters.
Chapter one introduces the project. It discusses key areas as project background,
objectives, statement of the problem, scope and limitation, definition of terms
and project report organization.
Chapter two is literature review. It deliberates on overview of home automation
system, history of home automation system, detailed of relevant theory, review
of past related work, limitation of the existing system and brief introduction of
the proposed work/solution.
Chapter three expresses the system design and the specification of the project.
Chapter four is detailed implementation, testing, integration and packaging.
Finally, in chapter five conclusion and recommendation are covered in this
chapter.