Plug-through energy monitor
OwnerMichael Lorekinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sensor for inductively measuring the current in a conductor flowing through a recess in a printed circuit board. Wire loops on the printed circuit board function as the inductive current sensor. Combined with a voltage measurement, the energy being dissipated in the conductor's load circuit can be determined and transmitted wirelessly. Control circuits can be integrated with the metering hardware to enable the remote modulation of the load's power. The inductive sensor(s) can be used to track differences between the load's supply and return currents. If a fault is detected, the circuit can be broken for safety, serving a ground fault circuit interruption (GFCI) purpose.
Claims12
A method for mapping an electrical wiring network in a building comprising:
- a) creating a network of distributed sensors, wherein said sensors are installed at one or more points within the building including at wall outlets, lighting, switches, appliances, circuit breaker panel, or any other load point;
- b) measuring voltage and current throughout the wiring network using the sensors, each of which is comprised of:
- i) a circuit to measure the current comprised of one or more inductive pickup coils of wire loops, the area inside the loops situated at an angle to the plane of a printed circuit board;
- ii) at least two recesses in the board from which conductors are removably inserted;
- iii) wherein the pickup coil is located between the recesses in the board;
- iv) wherein the conductors are current-carrying,
- v) wherein the currents in pairs of conductors are of the same magnitude but flowing in opposite directions;
- vi) wherein the pickup coil is sensitive to a magnetic field created by the flow of current;
- and
- vii) wherein the pickup coil generates a signal proportional to the currents flowing through the plane of the circuit board;
- viii) wherein the pickup coil generates the signal continuously;
- ix) wherein the pickup coil also measures current flowing in both hot and neutral wires separately;
- x) a circuit to measure the voltage of each current-carrying conductor with respect to earth ground that produces signal data;
- c) transmitting data collected from sensors to a computing platform for processing;
- d) processing data from sensors at the computing platform;
- e) determining the topology of the building's electrical wiring infrastructure;
- and
- f) determining the distributed electrical properties of the building's wiring infrastructure.
A system for modeling wiring topology in a distributed system comprising:
- a) multiple sensors each of which is comprised of:
- i) a printed circuit board with a current sensor comprised of one or more inductive pickup coils of wire loops, the area inside the loops situated at an angle to the plane of the board;
- ii) at least two recesses in the board from which conductors are removably inserted;
- iii) wherein the pickup coil is located between the recesses in the board;
- iv) wherein, the conductors are current-carrying,
- v) wherein the currents in pairs of conductors are of the same magnitude but flowing in opposite directions;
- vi) wherein the pickup coil is sensitive to a magnetic field created by the flow of current;
- and
- vii) wherein the pickup coil generates a signal proportional to the currents flowing through the plane of the circuit board;
- viii) wherein the pickup coil generates the signal continuously;
- ix) wherein the pickup coil also measures current flowing in both hot and neutral wires separately;
- x) a circuit to measure the voltage of each current-carrying conductor with respect to earth ground that produces signal data;
- xi) wherein said sensors are installed at one or more load points within the system including wall outlets, lighting, switches, or any other load point;
- b) a processor coupled to a memory, the memory comprising machine executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to
- i) receive communications from each sensor, each communication including location data of the sensor within the system;
- and
- ii) generate a system wiring topology using the sensor data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.