CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction
This project is to design a meter that measures the power used by
an appliance. The meter will display the amount of energy used and
estimated cost. This meter can be used to monitor the electricity used
and can help economies the electricity bill.

If we want to save power and reduce cost, we need to know how

much each appliance uses over a period of time. Most of the
appliances do not run all the time so we need to know the power they
consumed while they are actually running and how much energy
usage consumed over a longer period.

Reliability estimation was found to be the one of the best method to

know the usage of electricity or it can be a home electricity monitor
that gives a real time feedback on how we consuming in our home in
particular time. Display meter conversion to Ringgit currency helps
people save money on their electric bill by showing them exactly
where they are consuming energy and how even small changes in
their electricity usage can save money. Reducing electricity
consumption also helps reduce Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so
you can feel good about helping the environment.

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 1.2 Research Background
If you want to save power and reduce costs, you need to know how
much power each appliance uses over a period of the time. Most
appliances don‘t run all the time, so you need to know the power they
use while they are actually running and how much they use over the
longer them. The easiest way to determine that is to use an electronic
power meter and this new "Auto Activate Energy Meter" fits the bill
nicely. It displays the measured power in Watts, the elapsed time and
the total energy usage in kWh. In addition, it can show the energy cost
in Ringgit Malaysia and cents. As a bonus, it also includes
comprehensive brownout protection. Brownout is the low voltage
condition that can be present even for several hours. This is often
created when the power demand exceeds the capacitor of the power
generator. Brownout can also cause many problems. Fortunately, high
or low voltage problems can be tackled by using some good quality
voltage regulators.

One obvious use for the this unit is to show refrigerator running
costs over a set period of the time, so that you can quickly determine
the effect of the different thermostat settings. Alternatively it could be
used to show the different in energy consumption between the
summer months and the winter months.

This research study will review the product that has same methods
with this devices system and also conclude with recommendation of
terms and meet the need of this device in the future. This device
actually helps people to save their money on their electric bill by
showing them perfectly where they are consuming electrical energy.

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 1.3 problem statement
A key parameter to concern is about the usage and amount.
Nowadays electricity is the most important things in our life no matter
during day lights or nights. The usage of electricity increases
drastically this few years recently. Due to the high cost and difficulties
to build and maintain the power plant and generation, we need to limit
the usage to save up the energy.

Residential house hold owner cannot estimate the cost of

electricity used. With normal energy meter, users can only read the
kilowatt/hour meter without knowing the estimated cost of the usage.

In addition, one of the problems occurs is that users could not

know which home appliance that produces more usage compare to
the other. Next, defect might happen to the existing electromechanical
energy meter due to the age of the meter when it gets older makes the
mechanical component in the meter no longer functioning up well.

This device, Auto Activate Energy Meter is one of the new

measuring methods to improve and implement new things to the
existence TNB kWh meter reader. This device will gives us a good an
accurate of electrical usage in a day or a month. The result that we get
is we can know the amount and we can monitor our usage from it. It is
versatile device because we can utilize the usage by our self.

1.4 Objective
The goal of this research is to provide a priority determination of
the ability of different metering options to disaggregate residential
loads. The target audience for this Auto Activate Energy Meter is
residential housing area. As for this development Auto Activate Energy
Meter objectives are:

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  To measure the energy consumed using Electrical standards
electricity tariff.
 To display the real time energy usage in kWh and cost to
Ringgit Malaysia.
 To provide brownout protection trip when the main voltage
lower than nominal.
 To demonstrate the basic electronics circuit assembly and use
of microprocessor chipsets

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 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

An electricity meter, electric meter, electrical meter, or energy

meter is a device that measures the amount of electric energy
consumed by a residence, business, or an electrically powered device.

Electric utilities use electric meters installed at customer’s

premises to measure electric energy delivered to their customers for
billing purposes. They are typically calibrated in billing units, the most
common one being the kilowatt hour kWh. They are usually read once
each billing period.

When energy savings during certain periods are desired, some

meters may measure demand, the maximum use of power in some
interval. "Time of day" metering allows electric rates to be changed
during a day, to record usage during peak high-cost periods and off-
peak, lower-cost, periods. Also, in some areas meters have relays for
demand response load shedding during peak load periods.

2.2 Previous product

The previous product and still can be counted as the existing

product is the electromechanical energy meter where this type of
energy meter is operated by using and mechanical component such
as gear disc and using magnetic induction coil. The electromechanical
induction meter operates by counting the revolutions of a non-
magnetic, but electrically conductive, metal disc which is made to
rotate at a speed proportional to the power passing through the meter.
The number of revolutions is thus proportional to the energy usage.
The voltage coil consumes a small and relatively constant amount of
power, typically around 2 watts which is not registered on the meter.
The current coil similarly consumes a small amount of power in

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 proportion to the square of the current flowing through it, typically up to
a couple of watts at full load, which is registered on the meter.

Firstly, the project is taken form the magazine titled EPE (Everyday
Practical Electronics) named “Energy Meter”. It is published in May
2007.in the magazine the project is a monitoring system of electricity
usage for individual appliance and figure out what it cost to run them.

2.3 Existing product

There have a few existing product in the market that has been
invent for metering application that measured the amount of electric
energy consumed by a residence, business or an electrical powered
device such as single phase digital static kWh meter and single phase
analogue kWh meter. In addition of this research, there is a device is
likely to this project already invented to calculate power, energy,
usage and convert it to the currency reading.

Figure 1: DDS2 single-phase electronic energy meter

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 DDS2 type of single-phase electronic energy meter (LCD) is to adapt to
our single-phase electric metering requirements, design and development of
the intellect Power Meter. The instrument was a high-tech products
Commodities which used world's most advanced ultra-low power
consumption of mass ASIC technology and the SMT manufacturing.
Selection of the key components of the internationally renowned brand long-
life components, improving the product's reliability and service life. Data
shows that using long life and wide temperature range LCD, when power
outages often display, which facilitate meter reading in blackout, with a higher
degree of accuracy and reliability. The table also has infrared and 485
communications functions (choice) to facilitate the management of remote
meter reading. Communication protocol support DL/T645-1997 "multi-
functional electric energy meter communication protocol," offer the necessary
for the automated management of the electricity conditions. The main
functions and features:

 Energy Measurement ways: total single-phase power meritorious

=positive meritorious + Reverse meritorious.
 Right through infrared interface programming meter settings and
copied sheet data to support meter reading with shrinking table,
Table factory default is bar code numbers.
 After the blackout enter low-power work, in the blackout shows that
the current state of total consumption, continuous 24-hour blackout
revealed about the closure.
 Meter procedural device to prevent the failure caused flight
function, and after the failure to stop measurement.

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 Figure 2: Single-phase Kilowatt-hour Meter Type DD28

The Single-phase Kilowatt-hour Meter Type DD28 is an instrument of

induction type, used for measuring the single phase .A.C energy of rated
frequency 50Hz.The instrument is novel design, attractive appearance,
compact and sturdy construction. The instrument features high accuracy,
over wide load range and a long service life. All the components of this meter
are of selected material and the metal ones electroplated or finished with
baking enamel. The casing and terminal block with gasket are properly
treated against mold, moisture and dust. The characteristic which are:

 When the meter is running with 0.5% rated current at rated voltage
and frequency and unity power factor, the rotor will rotate
ceaselessly
 With no current in the current circuit, the rotor will not make a
complete revolution at any voltage between 80% and110% of rated
voltage
 With no current in the current circuit, the power consumption of the
voltage circuit is within 1.5W at rated voltage and frequency. With

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 rated current circuit, the power consumption of the current circuit is
within 2VA at rated frequency.
 With the specified ambient temperature and relative humidity below
85%, the insulation between the casing and all the circuits can
withstand a test of 2kV, 50Hz for 1 min

Figure 3: Power costs monitor (Blue Line Innovation)

The Power Cost Monitor is a portable central feedback display. The

device is composed of two parts: 1) A sensor unit attached to the utility meter
whether conventional or digital (Smart Meter); and 2) A portable display unit
consisting of a display divided into segments showing the measurements and
command buttons as shown in Figure 2.5. The Power Cost Monitor provides
information about the overall house electricity usage. The Display unit and
the sensor unit communicate wirelessly such that the sensor can transmit
electricity consumption information to the display. The Power Cost Monitor

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provides real time direct feedback about overall consumption. The portable
display unit (100ft range) allows two tier energy pricing. The design of the
Power Cost Monitor is such that it provides the basic information necessary
to understand electricity consumption, resulting in the salience of data
correlated to importance. Disadvantages of the device are that all of the
relevant information is in a digital format, except for peak consumption (bar
graph) and spinning disk emulator. The outdoor temperature may provide a
false reading or confusion as the sensor may be indoors depending on where
the meter is located. Like the Kill-A-Watt the price of electricity per kWh must
be manually inputted in order to show the total cost of electricity to pay. The
Power Cost Monitor is missing TOU pricing to be compatible with Smart
Meters.

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 CHAPTER 3: MATERIAL and METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter will discuss the function of each circuit that part of this
project. In order to develop the project, the strategy must be thoughtfully
planned before starting to build it. The Gantt chart is very essential because it
will use as guidance for the progression of the whole project. The design of
Auto Activate Energy Mater can be fundamentally divided by two parts of
hardware and software. The hardware implementation is done by designing
and research of the circuit layouts including the selection of suitable
components. For the software part, the program coding is created based on
the operation of the microcontroller PIC 16F877A and the choice of
programming language.

3.2 Main component and material

In this section it will be explain about the main component that will be used in
this project.

3.2.1 Step down Transformer

Transformers are used to convert electricity from one voltage to

another with minimal loss of power. They only work with AC (alternating
current) because they require a changing magnetic field to be created in their
core. Transformers can increase voltage (step-up) as well as reduce voltage
(step-down). Alternating current flowing in the primary (input) coil creates a
continually changing magnetic field in the iron core. This field also passes
through the secondary (output) coil and the changing strength of the
magnetic field induces an alternating voltage in the secondary coil. If the
secondary coil is connected to a load the induced voltage will make an
induced current flow. The correct term for the induced voltage is 'induced
electromotive force' which is usually abbreviated to induced e.m.f.

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 Figure 4: Step down transformer

3.2.2 Bridged rectifier

Another type of circuit that produces the same output waveform as

needed in the circuit to produce a constant voltage is the Full Wave Bridge
Rectifier. This type of single phase rectifier uses four individual rectifying
diodes connected in a closed loop "bridge" configuration to produce the
desired output. The main advantage of this bridge circuit is that it does not
require a special center tapped transformer, thereby reducing its size and
cost. The single secondary winding is connected to one side of the diode
bridge network and the load to the other side as shown below.

Figure 5: Full Bridge rectifier

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 Figure 6: Full Bridge rectifier with smoothing capacitor

The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave rippled output of the rectifier
into a smooth DC output voltage. Generally for DC power supply circuits the
smoothing capacitor is an Aluminum Electrolytic type that has a capacitance
value of 100uF or more with repeated DC voltage pulses from the rectifier
charging up the capacitor to peak voltage. However, there are two important
parameters to consider when choosing a suitable smoothing capacitor and
these are its Working Voltage, which must be higher than the no-load output
value of the rectifier and its Capacitance Value, which determines the amount
of ripple that will appear superimposed on top of the DC voltage.

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3.2.3 Voltage regulator

Figure 7: LM7805 voltage regulator

IC 7805 is a 5V Voltage Regulator that restricts the voltage output to

5V and draws 5V regulated power supply. It comes with provision to add
heatsink.

The maximum value for input to the voltage regulator is 35V. It can
provide a constant steady voltage flow of 5V for higher voltage input till the
threshold limit of 35V. If the voltage is near to 7.5V then it does not produce
any heat and hence no need for heatsink. If the voltage input is more, then
excess electricity is liberated as heat from 7805.

It regulates a steady output of 5V if the input voltage is in rage of 7.2V to

35V. Hence to avoid power loss try to maintain the input to 7.2V. In some
circuitry voltage fluctuation is fatal (for e.g. Microcontroller), for such situation
to ensure constant voltage IC 7805 Voltage Regulator is used.

3.2.4 Current sensor circuit

A current sensor is a device that detects electrical current (AC or DC) in a

wire, and generates a signal proportional to it. The generated signal could be
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analog voltage or current or even digital output. It can be then utilized to
display the measured current in an ampere. It will detect and converts current
to an easily measured output voltage, which is proportional to the current
through the measured path. There are a wide variety of sensors, and each
sensor is suitable for a specific current range and environmental condition.
No one sensor is optimum for all applications. Among these sensors, a
current sensing resistor is the most commonly used. It can be considered a
current-to-voltage converter, where inserting a resistor into the current path,
the current is converted to voltage in a linear way

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒
𝐴𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑒
𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒

Figure 8: Principal of current sensing

3.2.5 Microcontroller

A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit

containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output
peripherals. Neither programed memory in the form of NOR flashes or OTP
ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of

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RAM. Microcontrollers are designed for embedded applications, in contrast to
the microprocessors used in personal computers or other general purpose
applications

Microcontrollers are used in automatically controlled products and

devices, such as automobile engine control systems, implantable medical
devices, remote controls, office machines, appliances, power tools, toys and
other embedded systems. By reducing the size and cost compared to a
design that uses a separate microprocessor, memory, and input/output
devices, microcontrollers make it economical to digitally control even more
devices and processes. Mixed signal microcontrollers are common,
integrating analog components needed to control non-digital electronic
systems.

Some microcontrollers may use four-bit words and operate at clock rate
frequencies as low as 4 kHz, for low power consumption (milliwatts or
microwatts). They will generally have the ability to retain functionality while
waiting for an event such as a button press or other interrupt; power
consumption while sleeping (CPU clock and most peripherals off) may be just
Nano watts, making many of them well suited for long lasting battery
applications. Other microcontrollers may serve performance-critical roles,
where they may need to act more like a digital signal processor (DSP), with
higher clock speeds and power consumption.

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 Figure 9: 40pin PIC

They are various type of microcontrollers such as PIC16F628A, PIC 16F

877A, PIC 16C71 and many more. For this project, PIC 16F877A will be used
as a designated microcontroller.

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3.3 Flow Chart

Figure 10: Flow Chart

3.3.1 Flow Chart description

The flow chart above is showing the process of the operating system of auto
activate energy Meter where the input supply of the circuit is from a single
phase 230V.Then from 230V supply it will go through the transformers where
the transformers is a step down transformer where it will step down the
voltage from 230v to 12v. After step down from the transformers the voltage
will be rectified using bring rectifier to convert the A.C to D.C voltage. Next,
from the rectifier the voltage will be regulate using voltage regulator 7805 to
produce 5V D.C voltage as the input supply of microcontroller and LCD to
operate. If the Current transducer circuit sense an error it will send the

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feedback to the LCD and LCD will display and error in reading. Lastly, if the
operation of the circuit works very well the LCD will display the result of
voltage, current, power in kWh, and cost of billing in the LCD display.

3.4 Block Diagram

Figure 11: Block Diagram

3.4.1 Block Diagram Description

3.4.2 Utility supply 230V

The utility supply from the service provider is 230v A.C will go through the
load and go through energy meter ic.

3.4.3 Transformers

The voltage and current will go through the transformers and the
transformers will step down the supply from 230V A.C. to 12V A.C. and pass
through the rectifier.

3.4.4 Rectifier

Rectifier circuit will operate to convert the A.C supply to D.C supply because
the operation of the system required and D.C input to operate the circuit.

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3.4.5 Regulator

The regulator will regulate the voltage from 12vDc to 5v Dc by using lm7805
IC to regulate the voltage.

3.4.6 Current transducer

Current transducer circuit will operate to sense the current and voltage
reading form the load or act as the current sensor then give the feedback of
the sensing to the microcontroller to process the data.

3.4.7 Microcontroller

Microcontroller IC will operate by using 5v DC supply and will be the main

component in the circuit to process all the data receive by the energy meter
IC circuit.

3.4.8 LCD

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) will display the information or result on the
screen. For example the result shown in the screen is voltage, current (amp),
power kWh, and billing in ringgit Malaysia.

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3.5 Schematic Diagram

Figure 12: Schematic diagram Energy Meter

3.5.1 Converter Circuit

Converter circuit is a combination of step down transformers from 230v to

12v, then bridge rectifier circuit where bridge rectifier function to rectifier is an
Alternating Current (AC) to Direct Current (DC) converter that rectifies mains
AC input to DC output. Then after rectified the circuit the voltage will be
regulate using lm7805 to produce a constant 5v DC supply for the
microcontroller and LCD screen to operate.

3.5.2 Current transducer circuit

The current transducer circuit is using LTS 25-NP where there is a few
advantages of this current transducer where it give out excellent accuracy,
very good linearity, very low temperature drift, no insertion losses, current
overload capability. A current transducer is used to describe a device that
convert an alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) signal into a desired
voltage range signal that can use in control systems.LTS-25-NP is a kind of
closed loop (compensated) multi range current transducer using the Hall

21 
 
Effect. This transducer works in DC, AC, pulsed, mixed, with a galvanic
isolation between the primary circuit (high power) and the secondary circuit
(electronic circuit).The signal receive from the current transducer will be send
to the microcontroller for further process.

3.5.3 Microcontroller

The function of microcontroller is to process the input data from the current
transducer circuit and display it on the LCD. To operate the microcontroller it
required a 5v DC voltage to turn on, the oscillator circuit it required clock
pulses for its functionality. For each instruction fetching, decoding, executing,
and storing, processor require clock pulse. Now there are two reasons why
we cannot prefer to use internal oscillator Internal RC oscillator is limited to
certain speed, so to attain higher speed we require external oscillator. The
noise level of inside RC oscillator is higher than external oscillator. The input
data from the microcontroller is received from the current transducer and the
output of the microcontroller is connected to LCD to display the result obtain.

3.5.4 LCD screen

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) functions to display the result from the
microcontroller. The input of the LCD is 5v DC and from microcontroller. The
LCD size used is 16x2.This screen is divided into two rows where on the top
row it will display the voltage and current for bottom row it will display the
power in kWh and cost in ringgit Malaysia.

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3.3 Simulation result

After done construct the circuit, the circuit was simulated by using the
multisim and proteus software for converter circuit and current transducer
circuit. For the simulation, the results of output voltages from the converter
circuit and current transducer will be observed whether is same or not with
the results as expected for both of circuit.

3.6.1 Converter circuit

Figure 13: Converter Circuit

In the converter circuit it shows out that the value of the ac input
supply from 230v AC is convert to dc by using bridge rectifier. The input
before transformers is 230vrms and the ratio of the transformers is 19:1 and
the value obtain after transformers is 12.106v AC. Then the voltage is been
rectified using bridge rectifier to convert the AC voltage to DC voltage where
the value obtain after voltage regulator LM7805 is 5v DC. The function of
diode in the circuit is to allow current flow in one direction and the capacitors

23 
 
function to smoothing the wave form to constant DC voltage. The LEDs
shows that the circuit is in DC voltage and the LEDs could be turn on.

3.6.2 Current transducer circuit

Figure 14: Current Transducer Circuit

In the current transducer circuit the ACS712ELCTR-30A-T is been

used to replace the LTS 25-NP because there is no exact same component
in the library. The source supply for the current transducer circuit is 9v battery
to power up the circuit. After the battery is turn on and the load is in 100% the
amps produce is 88.9A where the voltage produce is 4.77 VDC where the
output voltage will be the reference voltage that will be signal out to the
microcontroller to process the load produced from the current transducer.

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3.3 Gantt chart
3.7.1 Gantt Chart for Final Year Project (FYP) 1

3.7.2 Gantt chart for Final Year Project (FYP) 2

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 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION

4.1 Introduction

The research study will produce new development in Auto Activate

Energy Meter methods. New reliability estimation techniques will be
proposed, tested and applied to the analysis and design of this device. The
proposed technique will be useful in doing the test and will provide
information on result obtained.

All the idea and techniques will be proposed, tested and applied to
analysis and designing the system. The ideas that propose will be useful to
determining important thing of the development and to ensure it is achieve.

By the end Auto Activate Energy Meter will be a helpful system into the
industries that can manage the usage of electrical energy in the future as
mention before in a perfect way. This will come out with many benefits that
can compete with other system or manual techniques and at the same time
achieve all the objective of the project.

4.2 Recommendation and Future Works

For this prototype, some recommendation and future work can be work on
for future upgrading. In this project, an automatic bill will print out by the end
of the month when we press the press the print button on the device instead
of the TNB workers come to our house. LED will lights up in various colors
(optional) as indicator that the bill is ready to be printed.

Some other recommendation is the prototype will linked up with GSM

network so that, we can set every period of timing, date or day will inform us
how much the electrical consumption that we used. With that we can monitor
our usage and get manage to reduce the billing every month.

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4.3 Summary

Lastly, in this chapter explained and summarized the works and

conclude for the overall of the project. Besides, recommendation for the
development of Auto Activate Energy Meter was presented in this report.

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 CHAPTER 5: REFERENCES

 TG Francis, Electrical and Installation Work 4th Ed, London ELBS,

1992

 DC Green. Electrical Engineering Handbook 4th Ed, Prentice Hall

London 1990

 RH Perry, Engineering Manual: A Practical Reference of Design

Methods and Data in Building System 3rd Ed.

 Barry Kennedy, Power Quality Primer, McGraw Hill

 Programming the PIC microcontroller with basic, Jack R. Smith

 http://www.bluelineinnovations.com/

 http://www.tnb.com.my/residential/pricing-and-tariff/tariff-rates.html

 http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/diode/diode_6.html

 http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=16
f877a

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