Engineering Commons^™

Autoplug: An Automated Metadata Service For Smart Outlets, Lurdh Pradeep Reddy Ambati

Masters Theses

Low-cost network-connected smart outlets are now available for monitoring, controlling, and scheduling the energy usage of electrical devices. As a result, such smart outlets are being integrated into automated home management systems, which remotely control them by analyzing and interpreting their data. However, to effectively interpret data and control devices, the system must know the type of device that is plugged into each smart outlet. Existing systems require users to manually input and maintain the outlet metadata that associates a device type with a smart outlet. Such manual operation is time-consuming and error-prone: users must initially inventory all outlet-to-device mappings, …

Hybrid Water Pump, Dylan W. Grant, Wei Chen Yeh

Electrical Engineering

This project seeks to use multiple sources to power a water pump. We will design a system which will combine inputs from solar and wind energy production to ensure the pump will have enough power to run. This will create a system powered by clean energy and will be self-sustained once completed. This will theoretically create a more sustainable source of power for the pump than only one of the sources. Because the power sources don’t require outside inputs (aside from sun and wind), the pump can be placed in a remote area. This could be very helpful in developing …

Automatic Standby Power-Saving Power Strip, Trung Nguyen

Electrical Engineering

The Standby Power Saving Power Strip improves on common power strip functionality. The project reduces the power loss from most electrical devices’ standby power mode, while retaining the convenience of leaving the devices plugged-in. The surge protector automatically recognizes when the plugged-in devices enter standby power mode. Then, it shuts off power to that device and automatically provides power back to the plugged-in devices, when turned on.

Dc House Energy Management System, Zachary L. Eldredge, Zoe M. Hay

Electrical Engineering

In this work, a previously completed proof of concept for an Energy Management System (EMS) for the DC House project has been revised and re-implemented. The implemented design changes will improve the performance and reproducibility of the system. This new design of the EMS replaces the two-separate buck and boost DC-DC converters with a single bidirectional DC-DC converter to reduce components and improve efficiency. Analysis of the bidirectional DC-DC converter shows high efficiency especially at larger load currents. The code of the previous work was updated for smoother operation as well as to accommodate an LCD capable of displaying more …

Automatic Power Management For Instructional Computers At Humboldt State University: A Calculation Of Potential Energy Savings And Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions, Nicholas F. Flenghi

Projects

Computers consume an estimated 5,610 GWh per year in California alone. Much of that energy is consumed by computers that are not being used. In this project, detailed user login data are used to estimate the energy consumption of instructional computers at Humboldt State University (HSU) over the course of one semester. The data are also used to estimate the potential energy savings from automating the shutdown process. Potential cost savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions resulting from implementing an automatic-shutdown power management plan are also calculated.

There are approximately 1,000 computers used for teaching and learning purposes at …