7.
2-1
Remote-Controllable and Energy-Saving Room Architecture
based on ZigBee Communication
Jinsoo Han, Haeryong Lee, Kwang-Roh Park
U-Computing Department, ETRI, Daejeon, Korea
Abstract— This paper describes room architecture to reduce
power consumption and to make the room easily controllable
with an IR remote control of an home appliance. The room is
composed of automatic standby power cut-off outlets, a dimming
light and a ZigBee controller. The automatic standby power cut-
off outlet monitors the power consumption of the outlet and
completely cut off the power supply when the monitored power
value is below the threshold. Based on the ZigBee
communication, the ZigBee controller plays a role of switches for
the power outlet and the dimming light. It turns on the power
outlet and dims the light in the room. The ZigBee controller has
an education function of an IR remote control signal of a home
appliance connected to the power outlet. With this architecture a
user can handle the power outlet and the dimming light through
one IR remote control in the energy-saving room.
I. INTRODUCION
As the number of home appliances is increasing and the size
of them is becoming large, the power consumption is
considered as an important issue in home area. Efficient power
management is required to reduce the total power
consumption in home. The controlling and monitoring
capability is indispensable to manage the home power. The
network capability also is required. Several controlling and
monitoring system have been proposed and implemented [1]-
[3]. To transfer the control message and the monitored power
value, Power Line Communication (PLC), Ethernet, Bluetooth
and ZigBee are used as wired or wireless networks. The signal
transformation circuit is designed to measure the working
power of the electric outlet [2]. The measured power value is
recorded and transferred periodically to the remote control
unit such as a cell phone, a Personal Computer (PC) and a
Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) [1], [3]. When the
measured power value is above the maximum load, the power
outlet is electrically turned off through the solid state or
mechanical relay. The user can check the real-time power
consumption of the home appliances. However, these previous
systems only monitor the consuming power value and protect
the overload of the power outlet. They don’t provide an
energy-saving method to cut off the useless power
consumption. They need the PC or PDA to monitor and
control the power outlet.
In this paper, we propose a remote-controllable and energy-
saving room architecture. To implement this room architecture,
the automatic standby power cut-off outlet and the ZigBee
controller with an IR receiver are described and its operation
mechanism is explained.
II. PROPOSED POWER OUTLET AND ZIGBEE CONTROLLER
The proposed power outlet is designed to have the function
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Authorized licensed use limited to: Guru Anandan Saminathan. Downloaded on August 1, 2009 at 06:38 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
of automatic power cut-off in case of standby state. Fig.1
shows the architecture of the power outlet. The AC input is
connected to the two port relay. One output port of the relay is
connected directly and the other output port is via the power
monitoring circuit to the AC output outlet. The monitoring
circuit consists of a transformer, rectifying diodes and
additional components. It converts the measured power
consumption into a voltage. The microcontroller digitizes the
voltage as a measured power value. It controls the relay to turn
the power outlet on/off. The AC/DC adapter circuit supplies
the necessary DC power to the microcontroller in which a
ZigBee Radio Frequency (RF) module is included to
communicate with the ZigBee controller. A usual home
appliance has two power state, operation state and standby
state. In the operation state, the home appliance consumes a
large amount of power. But, in the standby state, it consumes a
small amount of power, which is named a standby power.
Because the power consumed at the standby state is not
ignorable, various efforts have been made to reduce it [4]. But
these efforts are contrived inside the home appliance. To more
efficiently reduce the standby power, it is required to
completely cut off the power supply at the power outlet.
This proposed power outlet periodically monitors the power
consumption via the monitoring circuit. Initially, it has its own
threshold power value in the memory of the microcontroller.
When the monitored power value is below the threshold power
value for the determined period, the microcontroller
commands the relay to cut off the AC power. This method can
reduce even the standby power of the home appliance.
AC/DC MCU
Circuit ZigBee
AC Input AC
Monitoring Output
Circuit
Relay
Fig.1. Architecture of the automatic standby power cut-off outlet
In the normal room there are several power outlets and a
dimming light. To control these outlets and a light, it is
necessary to equip the ZigBee controller in the room. Fig.2
shows the room architecture including a ZigBee controller,
two power outlets and a dimming light. The ZigBee controller
comprises several button switches and an IR receiver. One
button switch is assigned to the power outlet 1 and another
button switch is to the power outlet 2. When a user wants to
turn on the home appliance connected to the power outlet, he
needs to turn on the power outlet with the button switch and
then turn on the home appliance. The power turns off
automatically, but it should be turned on by the user manually.
If the home appliance is changed, the stored threshold power
value can be educated as follows. First, a user turns on the
power outlet and the home appliance. If he presses the button
switch, the microcontroller memorizes the normal power value.
Second, he turns off the home appliance only. If he presses the
button switch, the microcontroller memorizes the standby
power value. Then, the microcontroller calculates the
threshold power value with the two measured values. For
example, the average of the normal and the standby power
value can be the threshold power value. Two button switches
are assigned to the dimming light. One button switch is for
making lighter and the other for making darker. By handling
these two buttons, a user can control the light intensity of the
room.
Dimming
Light
ZigBee Controller
Power Power
Outlet 1 Outlet 2
Fig.2. Proposed Room Architecture
Our proposed ZigBee controller has an IR receiver. It has a
function to educate the IR codes. A user can educate the
power outlet 1 with the power on/off button of the IR remote
control. When he wants to watch a television (TV) connected
to the power outlet 1, he doesn’t have to press the button of
the ZigBee controller. He just needs to press the power on/off
button of the IR remote control toward the ZigBee controller,
which receives the IR signal and turns on the power outlet.
Then he can turn on the TV with the IR remote control. A user
can also educate the dimming buttons with the volume
up/down buttons of the IR remote control. Once the dimming
buttons are educated, he can control the light with an IR
remote control of the TV. By using the ZigBee controller with
an education function, a user can control the dimming light
and the power outlets with one remote control of the home
appliance such as a TV.
III. IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS
Fig.3 shows the implementation of the ZigBee controller
and the power outlet. The ZigBee controller has an IR receiver
and six button switches. Four power outlets and one dimming
light can be assigned to these buttons. The power outlet is
shown in Fig.3 (a). The AC/DC circuit, the monitoring circuit
and the relay are located at the rear side of the power outlet in
Fig.3 (b). Fig.3 (c) shows the daughter board for the power
outlet shown in Fig.3 (b), which consists of a microcontroller,
Authorized licensed use limited to: Guru Anandan Saminathan. Downloaded on August 1, 2009 at 06:38 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
a ZigBee RF module and a connector. The microcontroller and
the ZigBee RF module are integrated into one chip. The DC
power and the converted power signal and the relay control
signal are linked through the connector. The ZigBee controller
and the power outlet consume about 40 mW. This amount of
power consumption is very small compared to the normal
standby power target 1 W.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig.3. Implementation results: (a) ZigBee controller. (b) Automatic standby
power cut-off outlet. (c) Microcontroller daughter board
IV. CONCLUSION
We proposed a remote-controllable and energy-saving
room architecture. The automatic standby power cut-off outlet
is described. It can reduce the useless standby power
consumption. The ZigBee controller which can control the
power outlet and the dimming light is explained. It can
educate an IR remote control signal and a user can easily
control the dimming light and the power outlet with one IR
remote control. If the ZigBee controllers in each room are
linked to the home server, a user can manage the whole power
system in the remote area as well as in home.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of
MKE/IITA [2007-S-010-02, Development of Ubiquitous
Home Media Service System based on SMMD].
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