Chia-Hung Lien

Remote-Controllable Power Outlet System for Home Power Management

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 anywhere.

Power Monitoring and Control for Electric Home Appliances Based on Power Line Communication

Home power consumption tends to grow in proportion to the increase in the number of large-sized electric home appliances. An embedded system without any new additional wiring has been developed for home power management. By using power line communication (PLC) technology, electric home appliances can be controlled and monitored through domestic power lines. We describe a PPCOM (PTC Power-Controlled Outlet Module) which integrates the multiple AC power sockets, the power measuring module, the PTC module and a microcontroller into a power outlet to switch the power of the sockets on/off and to measure the power consumption of plugged-in electric home appliances. We have also designed an embedded home server which supports the Web page user interface, thus allowing the user to easily control and monitor the electric home appliances by means of the Internet. In addition, the field experiments reported have demonstrated that our design can be practically implemented and provides adequate results.

Estimation by Software for the Power Consumption of Streaming-Media Servers

The power consumption of a streaming-media server can be obtained in real time by using the virtual-instrumentation software described in this paper without using an additional hardware meter. We have built a model to estimate the power consumption from the observation of experimental data that consists of tracking the CPU utilization and detecting the operation parameters of the measured servers. When calculated in real time, the CPU utilization can respond to the dynamic change of the power consumption of the measured servers. The operation parameters represent the hardware configuration of the measured servers. We also propose three methods to obtain these parameters: filled- manually, hardware-revised, and software-revised parameter estimating. We have constructed the virtual-instrumentation software according to this power model to measure the power consumption of the streaming-media server. To facilitate the measurement process, we have also designed a suitable graphic-user interface for it. Our virtual-instrumentation software with three parameter-estimating methods has been tested by way of comparison with measurement results obtained by a power meter. The average power values of the hardware-revised method are found to yield mean errors of the estimate within 3%. The mean error of the software-revised method is within 6%. However, the filled- manually method may underestimate the power consumption by as much as 11%.

Home appliance energy monitoring and controlling based on Power Line Communication

In this paper an embedded remote monitoring and controlling power socket (RMCPS) has been developed with high suitability for automatic and power management of home electric appliances. It requires no new layout and has the advantage of low cost, low electricity consumption, small volume and convenient installation to replace the PC with a Web server construction. The RMCPS consists of three modules: the Essential Module, the Power Line Communication (PLC) Module and the Detection Module. This allows the user a remote Internet connection to an embedded power socket to both monitor and control home electric appliances.

Remotely Controllable Outlet System for Home Power Management

In this paper, we describe a remotely controllable outlet system with mechanism for home power management. The system consists of four blocks: the Bluetooth power-controlled outlet module (BPCOM), the home server, the remote control and the GSM channel. Bluetooth, wireless system can control the home electric appliances wirelessly at home without new wiring. The BPCOM integrates the multiply AC power sockets and a simple plug-in low-power microcontroller performs the power on/off switching of the sockets. In addition, the power detection circuits are used by the Hall current transducer to verify home electric appliance power on/off status. For the power management module of the home server, we designed the software module by Visual Basic .NET, which supports the graphic user interface (GUI) to let users easily monitor the home electric appliances power on/off. We also integrate Bluetooth to receive/transmit between the home server and the microcontroller. The remote control also provides the users with the ability to control home appliances power on/off through the Internet and the GSM channel linked to the home server in order to receive the SMS (short message service) for the power management of the home electric appliances power on/off anytime and anywhere

Measurement by the Software Design for the Power Consumption of Streaming Media Servers

The power consumption of the streaming media server can be obtained in real time by the virtual instrumentation software module described in this paper without an additional hardware meter. From the observation of experiments data we conclude that the measurement of the power consumption of the streaming media server depends on the CPU utilization exquisite dynamically and with some system operation parameters. We form a model to represent the power consumption with respect to the CPU utilization. By using the software method based on this model, users can perform the measurement of the power consumption of the PC at any time even remotely through the Internet. Once the required measurements are made, the acquired data can be immediately transferred back to the monitor server in order that the measured data can be analyzed in more detail. To facilitate the measurement process, we also designed a suitable graphic user interface. Our method has been tested through a comparison with the measurement results by means of a power meter

Web Server Power Estimation, Modeling and Management

An Internet server center provides multiple service sites by means of a multiple server pool. This paper presents a scalable multiple server (SMS) architecture design for resource management in a server center, with an emphasis on the proper balance of energy and performance. The goals are to provide different servers for different service sites in a way that automatically adapts to the offered load and improve the energy efficiency of the server pool by dynamically reconfiguring the server pool in accordance with an analytic model. We analyze the power consumption of a Web server as a function of a servers utilization based on experimental arrival data. Two power models such as linear and exponential are shown to fit the experimental arrival data. The linear model is used with a flow-equivalent approximate queuing analysis to minimize power consumption of the Web server. We validated our model by comparing the various working loads generated by a benchmark against measurements. The experimental results demonstrate the calculated values of the model tracks and the results generated by real machines. We also tested our SMS architecture by applying it to a real-life Web server center, and achieving a 16.9 % reduction in energy consumption

Monitoring System with Moving Object Detection Based on MSN Messenger

Monitoring systems are very important in our daily life. Monitoring systems exist in airports, banks, offices and even in our homes to keep us secure. A monitoring system based on an MSN messenger that can detect moving objects has been developed. We have designed a smart server using the software agent technology which integrates an MSN Autoresponder, an authority manager, a moving objects detector and a streaming media encoder into a powerful PC to implement the auto-reply, the authority, the active alert and the remote monitoring functions. By using the remote video surveillance and MSN communication technologies, the remote clients can monitor the cameras. The location of the remote clients may be anywhere in the world, provided that there is an MSN Messenger.

Design and implementation of a remotely controllable UPS outlet system

In this paper we describe a remotely controllable UPS outlet system for home power management that we have developed. Our system can also control the UPS outlet system of different families by means of GPRS technology of a GSM module. The controllable UPS outlet (CUPSO) integrates multiple AC power sockets, a UPS and a low- power microcontroller into a power outlet to switch the power of the sockets On/Off, to protect a sudden loss of the AC power supply and to measure the power consumption of plugged-in electric home appliances. Using Bluetooth, our wireless system can control the home electric appliances without any new wiring. The remote control also provides the user with the ability to turn home appliances on or off by means of the Internet, and the GSM channel linked to the home server is able to receive the necessary SMS (short message service) to turn the home electric appliances on or off anytime and anywhere.

Design of a UPS outlet system controlled by PDAs and GSM cellular phones

In this paper we describe a remotely controllable UPS outlet system for home power management that we have developed. The CUPSO (controllable UPS outlet) integrates multiple AC power sockets, a UPS and a low-power microcontroller into a power outlet to switch the power of the sockets On/Off, to protect a sudden loss of the AC power supply and to measure the power consumption of plugged-in electric home appliances. Using Bluetooth, our wireless system can control the home electric appliances at home without new wiring. The remote control also provides the user with the ability to control the power On/Off of home appliances through the Internet, and the GSM channel linked to the home server is able to receive the SMS (short message service) for the use of the power management of the home electric appliances power On/Off anytime and anywhere.