UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
A FOURTH YEAR PROJECT PROPOSAL IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A BSc.
HONOURS DEGREE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.

STUDENT: NYATSINE RUMBIDZAI ABIGAIL - R13294H

ruenyatsine@gmail.com
YEAR - 2016.

Title: DEVELOPMENT, BUILDING A MEASURING

SYSTEM FOR THE ENERGY USED BY ELECTRONIC
GADGETS OF A HOUSE

Supervisor: Professor E. Chikuni

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Most people are not aware of the fact that modern electrical or electronic appliances even
those having on or off switches consume energy when they are not performing their main
functions or even when they are switched off.
Mostly power is consumed in features such as powering of the built in clock or memory,
displaying information, responding to remote controls or programming and charging of
batteries.
A small amount of energy is lost in low voltage power supplies mainly due to the cheap
transformers with high core losses although they wont be performing any operation or are
switched off, therefore a sophisticated design is required for controlling and monitoring usage
of power by home appliances.

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Wastage of power and energy through use of electronic and electrical devices by consumers.

1.2 AIMS
To measure every load of interest in the house and make the information accessible and
reliably available to the consumer.

1.3 OBJECTIVES
To Design a simple but effective energy capture device consumed by appliances in a
house.
To design ,build ,test one unit and if it operates correctly it is to be replicated
To record the energy on an SD card.
To devise a way of collecting the data on a daily basis.

1.4 JUSTIFICATION
Eliminating unnecessary electricity losses from standby consumption certainly
provides an attractive option for our government which is currently struggling to find
financial resources to cope with the rapid growth in power demand and for others.
Consumers need to know how many units they really consume without wasting
energy and which gadgets or device consumes a lot of energy and the period which
results in cost cutting and energy saving.
The system helps consumers to choose carefully considering wattage when buying
household appliances.

1.5 METHODOLOGY.
Visits to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company for further
research.
Intensive research on the internet.
 Consultations to the supervisor, lecturers and other experts will be implemented.

1.6 HARDWARE DESIGN

Design and building of associated circuitry.

PCB design

Model prototype design

Hardware simulation

1.7 SOFTWARE DESIGN

Develop software application for interfacing the modem and PC

Programming the microcontroller using Arduino.

Software Simulation using Proteus

Debugging

1.8 SYSTEM VERIFICATION

Software and Hardware system integrated test of the prototype

Evaluation and performance tests

1.9 PROPOSED BUDGET

Number Part Cost ($) Description

1 Relay 5 For auto switching

1 Arduino 100 Model

microcontroller

1 Voltage sensor 30 For voltage regulation

8 16*2 LCD 40 For indication

12 Connecting wires 100 For connection

3 Current sensor 10 For measuring current

1 Power sockets 10 Use as nodes

1 Potentiometer 10 For adjusting.

Miscellaneous 40
Costs
 Total cost 295

1.9.1 GANTT CHART

REFERRENCES

datta, a., 2009. Microcontroller based password protected home applaince, s.l.:
s.n.
Meier, A., 2008. Standby Power, s.l.: CADDET energy.
Mohanty, B., 31 May 2001. The French Agency for the Environment and Energy
Management, s.l.: ADEME.
olalekan, O. m., October 2009. Indvidual control home automation system , s.l.:
s.n.