Summary of Real-Time Energy Monitor with Arduino and LabVIEW using arduino
The article presents Mr. Michele Mancini's Real-Time Energy Monitor project using Arduino to noninvasively measure household energy consumption by detecting the blinking red LED on a home energy meter. The system uses a photoresistor to detect LED pulses, an Arduino with a resistive voltage divider to read signals, and an XBee module to wirelessly send data to a PC. The PC processes real-time and five-minute average energy consumption data using LabVIEW, enabling instant consumption analysis without modifying existing electrical wiring.
Parts used in the Real-Time Energy Monitor:
- Arduino board
- Photoresistor (light-dependent resistor)
- Black tape (to cover photoresistor)
- Resistive voltage divider components (resistors)
- Potentiometer (for sensitivity adjustment)
- XBee wireless module (for Arduino)
- USB/XBee module (for PC communication)
- Home energy meter with red LED indicator
- PC with LabVIEW software
We present the candidature of Mr. Michele Mancini for the TiDiGino Contest. He proposes us a recent application with Arduino: Real-Time Energy Monitor
This is a simple power meter to analize the current consuming in a house using the led indicator of a house energy meter.
Reading the red led of a home energy counters the system detects the corrent consumption in a house.
It is a noninvasive method, not cut wire, no current disconnects, so a very interesting method…
The system consists of two parts: the Arduino board that detects the led pulses and sends the data via the XBee module, and a PC that recive the data through a USB/Xbee module and processes the data with LabVIEW so you can prepare and study the consumption in a very instant.
Arduino sends two datas to the PC:
1 – Real time datas
2 – Average consumption measured in a time of 5 minutes.
From the picture we see that the LED that indicates the current consumption is the red LED near to the display. In particular is the LED superior.
Arduino module
To detect the LED blinking you have to apply a simple photoresistor above the led and covered it with black tape. To read the analog voltage using the Arduino you have to use a resistive divider as shown in diagram:
The LED blinking causes the voltage drop down and this value is read by Arduino and compared with the voltage acquired by the potentiometer connected in the channel A0. This potentiometer has the task to adjust the sensitivity threshold.
The read data are processed from the sketch and then sends to the PC via Xbee module.
The Arduino code acquisition is as follows:
For more detail: Real-Time Energy Monitor with Arduino and LabVIEW