Use Of Electrical Appliances Research Articles

Bottom-Up Model of Random Daily Electrical Load Curve for Office Building

In the design stage of energy systems in buildings, accurate load boundary conditions are the key to achieving energy supply and demand balance. Compared with the building cold and heat load, the generation of building electrical load has stronger randomness, and the current standard electrical load calculation method cannot reflect this feature. Therefore, this paper proposes a bottom-up high time resolution power load generation method for office buildings. Firstly, the non-homogeneous Markov chain is used to establish the random mobility model of personnel in office buildings, and the building electrical appliances are divided into four categories according to the different driving modes of personnel to electrical appliances in office buildings. Then, based on the personnel mobility model, the correlation between the use of electrical appliances in office buildings and the personnel in the room is established to construct the random power simulation model of different types of electrical appliances. Finally, the electric load of different types of electrical appliances is superimposed hourly to generate a random daily load curve. In order to verify the validity of the model, an office building is simulated and compared with the measured electrical load value. The verification results show that the model well reflects the daily distribution characteristics of electric load. The simulation value and the measured value are used for statistical analysis. The evaluation results show that the correlation between the simulation value and the measured value is high, which further illustrates the validity and accuracy of the model.

E-Waste Reporting in Malaysia – A Preliminary Study

Globally, the awareness of environmental sustainability is gaining prominence, and one of the critical issues discussed in this area is waste management. With the advent of the digitalisation age, where information may be retrieved with a finger point, the use of electric and electronic appliances has been increasing exponentially. The appliances contain components that are usually filled with toxic materials and heavy metals such as mercury, lead and brominated flame retardants that are considered hazardous under the Basel Convention. When these appliances reach the end of their useful life, the toxic components that are not properly disposed of will eventually end up in landfills, thus endangering human health and the environment (www.doe.gov.my). Unproperly managed e-waste will result in soil, atmospheric and aquatic contamination (Alabi, Adeoluwa, Huo, Xu, & Bakare, 2021). Furthermore, these contaminations posed a threat to human, animals and plants (Alabi et al., 2021). Within humans, exposure to e-waste will lead to health problems such as changes in thyroid function, respiratory problems, changes in temperament and behaviour, decreased lung function, DNA damage and cancer (Grant et al., 2013; Alabi et al., 2021). Keywords: E-waste, Reporting, Annual reports, Malaysia

Techno-economic feasibility analysis of a 3-kW PV system installation in Nepal

This study investigates the techno-economic feasibility of installing a 3-kilowatt-peak (kWp) photovoltaic (PV) system in Kathmandu, Nepal. The study also analyses the importance of scaling up the share of solar energy to contribute to the country's overall energy generation mix. The technical viability of the designed PV system is assessed using PVsyst and Meteonorm simulation software. The performance indicators adopted in our study are the electric energy output, performance ratio, and the economic returns including the levelised cost and the net present value of energy production. The key parameters used in simulations are site-specific meteorological data, solar irradiance, PV capacity factor, and the price of electricity. The achieved PV system efficiency and the performance ratio are 17% and 84%, respectively. The demand–supply gap has been estimated assuming the load profile of a typical household in Kathmandu under the enhanced use of electric appliances. Our results show that the 3-kWp PV system can generate 100% of electricity consumed by a typical residential household in Kathmandu. The calculated levelised cost of energy for the PV system considered is 0.06 $/kWh, and the corresponding rate of investment is 87%. The payback period is estimated to be 8.6 years. The installation of the designed solar PV system could save 10.33 tons of CO2 emission over its lifetime. Overall, the PV systems with 3 kWp capacity appear to be a viable solution to secure a sufficient amount of electricity for most households in Kathmandu city.

Indoor air quality in a domestic environment: Combined contribution of indoor and outdoor PM sources

The impact of outdoor and indoor sources on the chemical composition of particulate matter (PM) collected in a domestic environment was explored. PM2.5 samples were simultaneously collected inside (living room and bedroom) and outside a detached house located in a peri-urban area. The daily concentrations of macro-components and of micro- and trace-elements (soluble and insoluble fractions) were determined over a period of eighteen days and used to obtain detailed information about the variability of PM sources in the outdoor and indoor environments. The most important outdoor contributions to PM mass concentrations were organic and secondary inorganic species, particularly during an atmospheric stability period. A nearby congested road was responsible for the resuspension of soil related species (Si, Ca, Fe). Indoors, PM mass concentration was significantly influenced by the presence of inhabitants and their routine activities. Cigarette smoking was selectively traced by the indoor concentration profile of soluble Cd. Particularly high Cu concentrations in the bedroom were associated with the use of electric appliances equipped with brush motors (vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, electric heater). Exhaust (EC) and non-exhaust (residual Sb, Cu, Mn, Mo and Sn) traffic tracers and biomass burning related species (K and soluble Rb, Cs, Tl) were able to penetrate indoors even when the ventilation of the house was poor. An accurate estimation of the health implications due to the exposure to PM2.5 in indoor, domestic environments must consider indoor and outdoor PM source contributions in detail.

Experimental study and numerical simulation of a Lithium-ion battery thermal management system using a heat pipe

The use of electric appliances equipped with lithium-ion batteries, have been increasing every day. The energy density of lithium-ion batteries is high; however, their lifespan and performance are heavily influenced by the rise in temperature. Hence, the development of thermal management of the lithium-ion battery is very necessary. One of the most effective methods for battery cooling is the use of heat pipe. Since many batteries are used together in order to generate higher power, it is important to predict their thermal performance. In this study, a lithium-ion battery heat management system equipped with a heat pipe is investigated. Part of a battery pack consisting of two batteries and a made heat pipe is selected and its performance is investigated experimentally. These tests are performed at various ambient temperatures through a made test chamber with the ability to accurately control temperature. In addition, with the help of software, a coupled simulation model for lithium-ion battery cooling with a heat pipe has been developed and compared with experimental data. The experimental results show that although with increasing ambient temperature, the battery surface temperature increases, but due to the decrease in thermal resistance of the heat pipe, the effect of this temperature rise can be moderated and work as an active method. In addition, using forced convection in the condenser section, not only can the battery surface temperature be controlled below 40 °C, but it also distributes the temperature uniformly over the battery surface. The use of the heat pipe also helps to maintain more stable temperature conditions with lower temperature fluctuations in consecutive battery cycles.

Manmade Electromagnetic Fields and Oxidative Stress-Biological Effects and Consequences for Health.

Concomitant with the ever-expanding use of electrical appliances and mobile communication systems, public and occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) in the extremely-low-frequency and radiofrequency range has become a widely debated environmental risk factor for health. Radiofrequency (RF) EMF and extremely-low-frequency (ELF) MF have been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), potentially leading to cellular or systemic oxidative stress, was frequently found to be influenced by EMF exposure in animals and cells. In this review, we summarize key experimental findings on oxidative stress related to EMF exposure from animal and cell studies of the last decade. The observations are discussed in the context of molecular mechanisms and functionalities relevant to health such as neurological function, genome stability, immune response, and reproduction. Most animal and many cell studies showed increased oxidative stress caused by RF-EMF and ELF-MF. In order to estimate the risk for human health by manmade exposure, experimental studies in humans and epidemiological studies need to be considered as well.

Role of gender participation in urban household energy technology for sustainability: a case of Kathmandu

Sustainability has endured as a global topic in terms of quality of life and energy-saving for an equalized system. Households represent one of the most energy-consuming sectors globally and are expected to increase tremendously in the future. Women have higher responsibility in the household energy use in most societies. However, their participation and impacts have been less prioritized in the sustainability concept regarding energy perspective. In contrast, most development studies reveal that women's participation in managing resources can positively impact women and policy management. However, women's active participation and influences on social, economic, and environmental contexts are mostly ignored in energy-related decisions, disregarding women's productive activities. Thus, this study evaluates the gender role in urban household energy in three contexts of economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainability pillars. This study is exploratory research based on questionnaire survey, interviews, observation, and air quality tests to apprehend appropriate data. The study revealed that the lower-income group uses a larger share of their monthly income for household energy with unclean cooking fuel. It has an impact on low-willingness to participate in new energy technology purchases. The use of electrical appliances and income has a moderate correlation (r = .48). However, Kathmandu urban households are eager to use electric cooking, but urban women have insufficient knowledge, information, and less affordability for new technology. The city's sustainability level is still low (47 scores) from a gender perspective, and it suggests the city needs a long way on the sustainability route. The study concluded that innovative technical interventions and women's financial power are essential, including the subsidy policy to reduce inequality between low and high energy household share variation and elevate gender participation. The gender mainstreaming approach in energy policy can increase women's participation in energy technology to get a clean environment and reduce the nation's financial burden of importing fuel.

Design and analysis of a waterproof capacitive touch key sensor interface circuit

Traditional mechanical keys are gradually replaced with touch keys. Capacitive touch keys have advantages in achieving higher sensitivity with a longer service life and lower cost. Hence, the capacitive touch key technology is widely used in consumer electronic products. In use of household electric appliances, such as electric kettle, induction cooker and exhaust hood, sometimes the water vapor would condense into visible moisture or even the water would splash out of the pot when overheated, which may lead to a falsely trigger of touch key. So, waterproof becomes a big challenge in household electric appliances. This paper analyzes how water affects capacitive touch key and proposes a waterproof capacitive touch key sensor interface circuit to overcome the challenge. Sensing of touch key capacitor would be influenced only when water covers more than two touch keys. Compensating channels working in certain strategy are used to decrease the influence of water. For the same water capacitor, the bigger threshold voltage, the bigger change of the counting number. A much smaller threshold voltage is better to further weak the effect of water. The circuit is implemented in a standard 110 nm CMOS process. The measured results show that the touch Signal to Noise and Water Disturb Ration (SNWDR) is 20.7 dB which proves that the proposed waterproof capacitive touch key sensor interface circuit is effective against water splash.

Do unemployment benefits and economic aids to pay electricity bills remove the energy poverty risk of Spanish family units during lockdown? A study of COVID-19-induced lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered serious economic crises in many countries. In Spain, millions of individuals have been ordered to remain at home and many are unemployed. The increased use of electrical appliances and low incomes make energy poverty highly likely. This study thus analyses the effectiveness of unemployment benefits and social measures to help Spanish family units pay their electricity bill during the COVID-19-induced lockdown in Spain (March–May 2020) and during a hypothetical lockdown in winter and summer. The results showed that the unemployment aids can contribute to alleviating energy poverty, especially if the unemployed individual worked in a poorly-paying job or for just a few hours. However, the social measures were found insufficient to avoid energy poverty. The application of a variable discount percentage in the electricity bill based on income and the month of the year would reduce energy poverty risk during further incidences of lockdown.

Development of Web Based Laboratory Prototype for Remote Monitoring and Control of Electrical Appliances

The demand of electrical energy is increasing drastically and a significant amount of electrical energy is consumed in buildings particularly in small and medium sized building due to increased comfort level and use of modern electrical appliances. In this paper, a laboratory prototype is developed to enable the integration of commonly used electrical appliances such as lighting load controllers and plug load controllers in the Indian context, as well as any IoT devices that have open application programming interface. The overall objective of this research is to demonstrate energy savings potential achievable, while maintaining satisfactory occupant comfort and healthy working environment through intelligent algorithms. Using the developed prototype more than 52% energy is saved through load scheduling approach. Moreover, the cost associated with the development of the proposed solution is very less as compared to the existing solutions. It is a game changer in saving energy, improve occupant comfort and plays a transformational role in small/medium sized buildings.

An explicit evolutionary approach for multiobjective energy consumption planning considering user preferences in smart homes

Modern Smart Cities are highly dependent on an efficient energy service since electricity is used in an increasing number of urban activities. In this regard, Time-of-Use prices for electricity is a widely implemented policy that has been successful to balance electricity consumption along the day and, thus, diminish the stress and risk of shortcuts of electric grids in peak hours. Indeed, residential customers may now schedule the use of deferrable electrical appliances in their smart homes in off-peak hours to reduce the electricity bill. In this context, this work aims to develop an automatic planning tool that accounts for minimizing the electricity costs and enhancing user satisfaction, allowing them to make more efficient usage of the energy consumed. The household energy consumption planning problem is addressed with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm, for which problem-specific operators are devised, and a set of state-of-the-art greedy algorithms aim to optimize different criteria. The proposed resolution algorithms are tested over a set of realistic instances built using real-world energy consumption data, Time-of-Use prices from an electricity company, and user preferences estimated from historical information and sensor data. The results show that the evolutionary algorithm is able to improve upon the greedy algorithms both in terms of the electricity costs and user satisfaction and largely outperforms to a large extent the current strategy without planning implemented by users.

Energy Consumption Pattern of Residential Buildings: Case Study of Residential Area in Batu Pahat, Johor

According to the National Energy Balance report released by the Energy Commission of Malaysia in 2016, the residential sector uses 21.6% of the total energy in Malaysia. Residents waste energy through inefficient energy consumption and a lack of awareness. Building occupants are considered the main factor that influences energy consumption in buildings, and to change energy consumption on an overall scale, it is crucial to change individual behaviour. Therefore, this study focused on analysing the energy consumption pattern and the behaviour of consumers towards energy consumption in their homes in the residential area of Batu Pahat, Johor. A self-administrated questionnaire approach was employed in this study. The findings of this study showed that the excessive use of air conditioners was a significant factor in the increasing electricity bills of homeowners as well as the inefficient use of electrical appliances. Also, this study determined the effect of awareness on consumer behaviour. This study recommends ways to help minimise energy consumption in the residential area.

Cash transfers and residential demand for electricity: insights from BISP, Pakistan.

We examine the causal impacts of the cash transfer program, namely the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), on residential demand for electricity among ultra-poor in Pakistan. We also analyze the effects of BISP cash transfers on a household's decision to acquire electrical appliances. The empirical analysis is based on the fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) using primary data collected from 1200 households. We find that BISP cash transfer has a significant positive impact on electricity demand among the target group. The cash transfer positively affects the use of few essential electric appliances, such as a washing machine and refrigerator, but not all electrical appliances. The electricity demand mainly stems from the additional use of existing electrical devices. Therefore, the extra income from BISP may not allow the recipients to move up the electric appliances ladder. The provincial analysis shows that the impact of BISP cash transfers on electricity demand varies across provinces and the development level, signifying the importance of regional heterogeneities, such as electricity supply. The findings suggest that cash transfers may facilitate the transition from traditional to modern energy to overcome the rising pollution problem and protect health. The expansion in the cash transfer program demands continuous investment in the power sector to fulfill the growing need for electricity.

Exposure to radiofrequency radiation increases the risk of breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The present systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the association between exposure to radiofrequency radiation and the risk of breast cancer. The published studies that were available in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus, Web of Science, Airiti Library, Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations and ProQuest until May 2020 were investigated. A total of eight studies (four case-control and four cohort studies) were eligible for quantitative analysis. A significant association between radiofrequency radiation exposure and breast cancer risk was detected [pooled relative risk (RR)=1.189; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.056-1.339]. Subgroup analyses indicated that radiofrequency radiation exposure significantly increased the risk of breast cancer susceptibility among subjects aged ≥50 years (RR=2.179; 95% CI, 1.260-3.770). Pooled estimates revealed that the use of electrical appliances, which emit radiofrequency radiation, such as mobile phones and computers, significantly increased breast cancer development (RR=2.057; 95% CI, 1.272-3.327), while occupational radiofrequency exposure and transmitters did not increase breast cancer development (RR=1.274; 95% CI, 0.956-1.697; RR=1.133; 95% CI, 0.987-1.300, respectively). It was concluded that radiofrequency radiation exposure significantly increased the risk of breast cancer, especially in women aged ≥50 years and in individuals who used electric appliances, such as mobile phones and computers. In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis, an evaluation protocol was prepared and registered with the PROSPERO database (registration no. CRD42018087283).

Importance of Behavioral Adjustments for Adaptive Thermal Comfort in a Condominium with HEMS System

The energy use in residential dwellings has been increasing due to increasing use of modern electric appliances to make the lifestyle easier, entertaining and better. One of the major purposes of indoor energy use is for improving indoor thermal environment for adjusting thermal comfort. Along with the use of passive means like the use of mechanical devices, the occupants in any dwellings use active means such as the use of natural ventilation, window opening, and clothing adjustment. In fact, the use of active means when the outdoor environment is good enough might be more suitable to improve indoor thermal environment than the use of mechanical air conditioning units, which necessarily require electricity. Therefore, the people in developing countries like Nepal need to understand to what extent the occupants can use active means to manage their own indoor thermal comfort. The use of active means during good outdoor environment might be an effective way to manage increasing energy demand in the future. We have made a field survey on the occupants’ adaptive behaviors for thermal comfort in a Japanese condominium equipped with Home Energy Management System (HEMS). Online questionnaire survey was conducted in a condominium with 356 families from November 2015 to October 2016 to understand the occupants’ behaviors. The number of 17036 votes from 39 families was collected. The indoor air temperature, relative humidity and illuminance were measured at the interval of 2-10 minutes to know indoor thermal environmental conditions. The occupants were found using different active behaviors for thermal comfort adjustments even in rather harsh summer and winter. Around 80% of the occupants surveyed opened windows when the outdoor air temperature was 30⁰C in free running (FR) mode and the clothing insulation was 0.93 clo when the outdoor air temperature was 0⁰C. The result showed that the use of mechanical heating and cooling was not necessarily the first priority to improve indoor thermal environment. Our result along with other results in residential buildings showed that the adaptive behaviors of the occupants are one of the primary ways to adjust indoor thermal comfort. This fact is important in enhancing the energy saving building design.

Review of results on smart‐meter privacy by data manipulation, demand shaping, and load scheduling

Simple analysis of energy consumption patterns recorded by smart meters can be used to deduce household occupancy. With access to higher-resolution smart-meter readings, we can infer more detailed information about the household including the use of individual electric appliances through non-intrusive load monitoring techniques. The extent of privacy concerns caused by smart meters has proved to an obstacle in the roll-out of smart meters in some countries. This highlights the need for investigating smart-meter privacy. Mechanisms for ensuring smart-meter privacy fall in broad categories of data manipulation, demand shaping, and load scheduling. In smart-meter data manipulation, the smart meter collects real, potentially high-resolution data about the energy consumption within the house. This data is then manipulated before communication with to utility providers and retailers. The manipulation could be non-stochastic, such as aggregation, binning, and down-sampling, or stochastic, such as additive noise. In demand shaping and load scheduling, smart-meter readings are communicated without any interference but the consumption is manipulated by renewable energy sources, batteries, or shifting loads to render non-intrusive load monitoring ineffective. In this study, the author reviews these approaches and presents several methods relying on homomorphic encryption, differential privacy, information theory, and statistics for ensuring privacy.

Home automation using general purpose household electric appliances with Raspberry Pi and commercial smartphone.

This study presents the design and implementation of a home automation system that focuses on the use of ordinary electrical appliances for remote control using Raspberry Pi and relay circuits and does not use expensive IP-based devices. Common Lights, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), fans, and other electronic devices are among the appliances that can be used in this system. A smartphone app is designed that helps the user to design the smart home to his actual home via easy and interactive drag & drop option. The system provides control over the appliances via both the local network and remote access. Data logging over the Microsoft Azure cloud database ensures system recovery in case of gateway failure and data record for lateral use. Periodical notifications also help the user to optimize the usage of home appliances. Moreover, the user can set his preferences and the appliances are auto turned off and on to meet user-specific requirements. Raspberry Pi acting as the server maintains the database of each appliance. HTTP web interface and apache server are used for communication between the android app and raspberry pi. With a 5v relay circuit and micro-processor Raspberry Pi, the proposed system is low-cost, energy-efficient, easy to operate, and affordable for low-income houses.

Awareness, Knowledge and Adaptation Practices of Farm Women in Relation to Climate Change in Northern Transitional Zone of Karnataka

Anthropogenic climate change is the topmost contemporary global issue. Climate change can potentially upset the rhythm of nature threatening the very existence of life on earth. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era, driven largely by economic and population growth, and are now higher than ever. Their effects, together with those of other anthropogenic drivers, have been detected throughout the climate system and are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. Further, relative to 1986-2015, warming is projected between 2.6 to 4.8°C under RCP8.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway) by the end of 21st century. So, climate change is the biggest threat to agriculture in countries around the globe as well as in India. Farmers in India are not fully aware of climate change and its indicators, causes, and impacts. Therefore, this study was conducted to know the awareness level, knowledge and adaptation practices of farm women regarding climate change. This study was conducted during 2018-19 under All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Home Science in Sulla village of Dharwad district. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 100 farm women in the village. A pre tested interview schedule was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis of the data. The study revealed that all of the respondents were not aware about the increase in melting of glacier, cold wave and frequent flood. It was observed from the study that, 36 per cent of the farm women belonged to low category of awareness on indicators on climate change. It was also noticed that all of the women were not aware about changes in farming system in present climate condition. Results show that women were not aware about rapid urbanization, use of pesticides, natural disaster, burning of fossils and farm waste, use of electrical appliances and global warming as the causes of climate change. Moreover, all of the women adopted change in planting calendar, adoption of crop rotation and adoption of intercropping.

A Death in a Tea Estate as a Result of Illicit Power Trapping

Electrocution results when a human is exposed to a lethal amount of electrical energy. Electrocution is the cause of death for approximately 1000 people in the United States every year. In Sri Lanka common causes for injuries due to electrocution include use of defective electrical appliances, faulty wiring, failure to take safety precautions and installations of unauthorized connections from high tension lines. In this case the diseased was a 48 year-old farmer from a rural area in Galle district. On this particular day, the diseased left home around 9.00 p.m. to go to his paddy field and did not return. The next morning, he was found lying unresponsive on a tea estate near his paddy field. At the post-mortem examination, multiple 2nd degree burns were found on the front aspect of the right upper thigh, back of the middle third of the right forearm, front of the upper third of the left leg and between the base of right thumb and index finger. Ruptured blister was present on the back aspect of the thumb over the metarcarpo-phalangeal joint. Musculo-skeletal dissection revealed charred subcutaneous tissues and superficial layers of the muscles underline the above-mentioned injuries. No deep contusions or fractures were seen. The cause of death was electrocution. This was an unfortunate case of accidental electrocution of a farmer due to application of an unauthorized power line to trap wild animals. The most likely mechanism of death was ventricular fibrillation. A detailed history regarding the incident, scene visit and proper postmortem examination with the histological and toxicological analysis are recommended prior to concluding the cause of death as electrocution.

Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) for Energy Disaggregation Using Soft Computing Techniques

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) has become an important subject of study, since it provides benefits to both consumers and utility companies. The analysis of smart meter signals is useful for identifying consumption patterns and user behaviors, in order to make predictions and optimizations to anticipate the use of electrical appliances at home. However, the problem with this kind of analysis rests in how to isolate individual appliances from an aggregated consumption signal. In this work, we propose an unsupervised disaggregation method based on a controlled dataset obtained using smart meters in a standard household. By using soft computing techniques, the proposed methodology can identify the behavior of each of the devices from aggregated consumption records. In the approach developed in this work, it is possible to detect changes in power levels and to build a box model, consisting of a sequence of rectangles of different heights (power) and widths (time), which is highly adaptable to the real-life working conditions of household appliances. The system was developed and tested using data collected at households in France and the UK (UK-domestic appliance-level electricity (DALE) dataset). The proposed analysis method serves as a basis to be applied to large amounts of data collected by distribution companies with smart meters.