Save money and save power with a smart plug
May 30th, 2012
Two bright sparks from the University of Sydney have come up with a smart plug that keeps track of individual appliances and could offer significant savings on power bills.
The MyPower Energy Platform has been designed for the continuous monitoring of home appliances such as washing machines, microwaves, and fridges through the plug, which has an embedded GSM unit.
It means households will be able to identify specific appliances that are energy guzzlers, if they should be used during off-peak hours or whether they should be replaced.
Under the supervision of Professor Joseph Davis from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, two phD students, Mahboobeh Mogaddham and Waiho Wong, have developed the technology.
“The plugs sense actual power usage and transmit the information via SMS reports to a cloud-based data warehouse every 30 minutes,” Wong explains.
“The householder can then access their electricity consumption data and drill down to individual appliances’ cost based on peak, shoulder and off-peak rates, through the MyPower website.”
Moghaddam said households could cut costs by ten per cent.
“Access to this data will allow users to optimise their appliance usage and take advantage of lower electricity rates by remotely scheduling or switching off the appliance via the smart plug. We are excited because this platform can provide a technically and economically feasible solution for households to reduce their electricity consumption by up to 10 percent – a significant cost reduction over the life of their appliances.”
Professor Davis says research shows households find it difficult to understand and reduce their energy consumption because of the way costs are lumped together on power bills. He thinks the plug will help people figure out which appliances could be replaced by more energy efficient versions that can save money in the long run.
You can only use ‘off peak’ in Australia to heat your hot water systems in domestic situations