Non-intrusive electrical load monitoring and profiling methods for applications in energy management systems

Abstract

"Phantom Loads" cause energy waste in homes and the built environment as a whole. Consumers spend more than $3 billion a year on "Phantom Load" in the United States alone. The goal of this paper is to conserve energy by increasing consumer awareness on their energy usage and reducing and /or eliminating phantom loads in the built environment. A further goal is to improve upon existing power distribution systems in the built environment with limited hardware additions to increase energy conservation. This paper investigates remote identification of load types and the locations along the electrical circuitry where they (load) are being consumed. The load type and status (on, off, standby) are determined both remotely and in a non-intrusive manner using Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Methods. Time/Frequency Domain Reflectometry (TDR) is also being investigated to remotely locate energy consumption nodes along the electrical circuitry.