myPowerMonitor

[Matt.S]

Every wondered how much power your kettle uses in the morning?

Find out with the myPowerMonitor project.

Learn the theory behind electical power.

Put the theory into practice with the prebuilt data logger or build it up from a template.

Introduction

In society today more and more emphasis is being put on energy efficiency and lowering our energy usage.  The myPowerConditionMonitoring teaching tool aims to give students an introduction to electrical power measurements and how different types of appliance use power in different ways.  This will give an in depth understanding of electrical power and this can be further reinforced with the myPowerDataLogger program that can be used to log power usage of any appliance that can be found around the home or workplace. This log file can then be analysed in any spreadsheet or data analysis program and graphed so extended periods of appliance run time can be seen.

Acquire, Analyze and Present Real World Signals

Youtube Video

The You tube video below talks through some of features of this project when you want to get stuck into the project then download the .zip file below and follow the pdf instructions in the documentation folder.

Materials Used

myDAQ

Mains Socket

230v to 9v transformer

Fused ICE socket with switch

STC-013 current transformer (voltage output)

100mA,400mA and 13A quickblow fuses

Plastic box to house it all

Cable and conectors

Important

Due to the fact that this build will require connecting your circuity to mains power (110-230V) it is recomend that it is checked by someone suitably qualified before the suppy is switched on.

[Jasmin]

Hello Matt,

First of all, thank you for posting this teaching tool. It is incredible. I was looking at the "myPowerMonitor.pdf" and I noticed that it asks for "myPowerConditionMonitoring" software disk. Do I need this software disk in order to run the lab? Thanks a bunch.

[Matt.S]

Hi Jasmin,

No this software is included in the MyPowerMonitoring.zip file.  The reason the PDF askes for the CD is because I was going to have an installer that could be burn to a cd to help with distribution of the lab files.

Best regards

Matt

[Jasmin]

Matt,

Thanks so much for your quick response. I am working with one of my professor in educational planning for a freshman course and we are absolutely delighted with what you have done.

I may be asking too much... we would prefer not to make the connector box "myPowerConditioningMonitoring" attachment for safety reasons. We're in the US, so the design you suggested would have to modify to support 120V. Do you or anyone sell these boxes already pre-made? and if so, do they make US versions?

Thanks again for your responses and for such an amazing lab. If you prefer, you can also email me to jcgonzalez@scu.edu

Regards,

Jasmin

[cd_electronics]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for making this, it all looks great. Just a quick question, does the Electrical Power Suite need to be installed in order to use this software?

Thanks,

Chris

[Matt.S]

Morning Chris,

It does but you can evaluate the toolkit in order to be able to use it as it is a paid for add on.

Thanks

Matt