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International Journal on Emerging Technologies (Special Issue NCETST-2017) 8(1): 609-611(2017)

(Published by Research Trend, Website: www.researchtrend.net)
ISSN No. (Print) : 0975-8364
ISSN No. (Online) : 2249-3255

Microcontroller Based Talking Energy Meter

Vijeta Pal and Pankaj Bisht
Electrical Department, Women's Institute of Technology, Dehradun, (U.K.), India

ABSTRACT: Among the most desirable feature of energy meter is simple circuit and ability to display the
load power consumption in precise manner. Such these things can be achieved /fulfill by using a talking energy
(kwh) meter having an advancement in energy meter which is become an attractive interface between user and
meter. It has the potential to replace the conventionally used energy meter. Talking energy meter is a new type
of energy meter having the ability to provide output in attractive manner. The purpose of this project is to
build a KWH (Kilo Watt Hour) meter that can alert the users with voice messages. An Energy meter or KWH
meter is a device that measures the amount of electrical energy supplied to or produced by a residence,
business or machine. Electricity is a clean, convenient way to deliver energy. The electricity meter is how
electricity providers measure billable services. The idea behind this project is to construct the Energy Meter
that is useful for illiterates and the busy people who cannot concentrate on the energy meter readings because
of their busy schedule. This system helps the users by alerting them about the peak loads (max energy
consumption), power status (ON/OFF), billing status etc. The voice alerts could be in any local language.
Hence this system can be used across the world.
Keywords: Kilo Watt Hour, Talking Energy Meter, Electricity, consumption, Over Load, Interfacing.
devices used in embedded products are Microprocessors
I. INTRODUCTION
and Microcontrollers.
The most common type of meter measures kilowatt- Microprocessors are commonly referred to as general
hours. When used in electricity retailing, the utilities purpose processors as they simply accept the inputs,
record the values measured by these meters to generate process it and give the output. In contrast, a
an invoice for the electricity. They may also record microcontroller not only accepts the data as inputs but
other variables including the time when the electricity also manipulates it, interfaces the data with various
was used. This project includes advancement in Energy devices, controls the data and thus finally gives the
Meter that is useful for illiterates and the busy people result.
who cannot concentrate on the energy meter readings The “Talking energy meter” using PIC16F877A
because of their busy schedule. This system helps the microcontroller is an exclusive project which is used to
users by alerting them about the peak loads (max energy help the deaf and dumb people to announce their
consumption), power status (ON/OFF), billing status requirements using voice module APR9600. The main
etc. The voice alerts could be in any local language. aim of the project is to provide a user-friendly
Hence this system can be used across the world. The interaction for the deaf and dumb people with other
typical voice alerts are “Over load”, “Pay electricity persons.
bill”, “Turn off the lights” etc. A. Equipment used
This system also consists of a LCD display that
continuously displays the energy meter readings in real- 1) Hard ware
time. This consists of Real-time clock for calculating
the average, max and minimum readings with respect to • Micro controller (16F877A)
time. This information is display on a LCD display. • Reset button
This can be achieved by the use of microcontroller unit • Crystal oscillator
that continuously monitors and records the Energy • Regulated power supply (RPS)
Meter readings in its permanent (non-volatile • LED indicator.
EEPROM) memory location. Microcontroller also • APR9600 voice module.
drives the voice module to play the voice messages • Energy meter
based on the energy meter readings.
• Optocoupler
II. PROJECT OVERVIEW • LCD
An embedded system is a combination of software and
2) Soft ware
hardware to perform a dedicated task. Some of the main

Pal and Bisht 609

• Express PCB – for designing circuit III. WORKING
• PIC C compiler - for compilation part The energy meter is connected to the power supply .an
• Proteus 7 (Embedded C) – for simulation part auxiliary supply is given to the microcontroller section.
The template is used to format your paper and style The all additional feature of this project such as voice
the text. All margins, column widths, line spaces, and circuit, limited consumption etc. is totally dependent on
text fonts are prescribed; please do not alter them. You microcontroller. The meter and microcontroller are
may note peculiarities. For example, the head margin in connected to each other to complete the task.
this template measures proportionately more than is In this meter a predefined limit is set for the load
customary. This measurement and others are deliberate, consumption and when the user comes at the set point it
using specifications that anticipate your paper as one part alerts to the user by voice signal. Also it disconnects the
of the entire proceedings, and not as an independent load when the load consumption exceeds the limit. The
document. Please do not revise any of the current voice signal can be any of the language which is
designations. incorporated with the system. A LCD is connected with
II. BLOCK DIAG. this system which continuously shows the current status
Schematic diagram and interfacing of PIC16F72 of load consumption.
microcontroller with each module and the bock diag. of A. Microcontroller
the project is shown here: The microcontroller used in this project is PIC16F72.
One unit of PIC16F877A microcontroller can be
programmed and erased so many times.
PIC16F877A already made with 368 bytes of Random
Access Memory (RAM) inside it. Any temporary
variable storage that we wrote in our program will be
stored inside the RAM. Using this microcontroller you
don’t need to buy any external RAM.
256 bytes of EEPROM are available also inside this
microcontroller. Using EEPROM is very important
because data stored inside EEPROM will be retained
when power supply is turn off. RAM did not store data
permanently. Data inside RAM is not retained when
power supply is turn off.

The pin diag. of microcontroller is shown in fig.

below

The above schematic diagram “Microcontroller based

talking energy meter” explains the interfacing section of
each component with micro controller and APR9600
voice module. Crystal oscillator connected to 13th and
14th pins of micro controller, regulated power supply is
connected to micro controller and also the LED’s
connecting to micro controller through resistors

Pal and Bisht 610

B. Advantage
[2] Jawarkar, N.P Ahmed, V, Ladhake, S. A and
• Voice based alerts. thakare, R. D (2008). Microcontroller based Remote
• Efficient and low cost design. Monitoring using Mobile through Spoken Commands.
• User friendly Journel of Network 3: 58-63.
• Low power consumption. [3] Koay. B.S, Cheah. S.S, Sng. Y.h, Chong. P.H.J,
• Energy readings are stored in non volatile Shun. P, Tong. Y.C (2003). Design and Implementation
memory. of Blue tooth energy meter. Proceedings of the Joint 4th
International Conference on Information,
C. Disadvantages Communication and Signal Processing and the 4th
• Interfacing energy meter to Micro Controller is Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia. 3: 1474-1477
sensitive. [4] Maheswari, C; Jejanthi, R (2009).Implementation of
Energy Management Structure for street Lightening
D. Applications System. A Journal of Modern Applied Science 5: 6-10.
This system can be practically implemented in real time [5] Malik S.H. 1, Aihab.K, and Erum.S (2009). SMS
where there is a limitation on energy utilization. Based Wireless Home Appliance control System
(HACS) For Automating Appliances and Security. I
IV. RESULT ssue in informing Science and Information Technology
The project “Talking energy meter” was designed such 6:887-894.
that whenever the usage of energy exceeds the pre-set [6] Nair, L.R and Maharaj, B.T (2004) - Efficient
value which is mentioned in the program, it announces Digital GSM/GPRS Metering for Rural electrification.
an alert message which was already predefined in the [7]. Nwaoko Kosi JOY (2006). Electrical Energy
voice circuit. Accounting Methods. Impressed Publishers,Lagos
Nigeria,1-8.
V. CONCLUSION [8] Omijeh. B.O “Ph.D Thesis on the Design and
Evaluation of GSM-based Intelligent Prepaid Energy
Integrating features of all the hardware components
Metering System for Nigeria” Ambrose Alli University
used have been developed in it. Presence of every
Ekpoma, 2012.
module has been reasoned out and placed carefully, thus
[9] Schwendtner .M.F (1996). Technological
contributing to the best working of the unit. Secondly,
developments in electricity metering and associated.
using highly advanced IC’s with the help of growing
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on
technology, the project has been successfully
Metering and Tarriffs for Energy Supply 8: 240-22.
implemented. Thus the project has been successfully
[10] Sharma .S and Shoeb. S. (2011)-Design and
designed and tested.
Implementation of Wireless automatic meter reading
VI. FUTURE SCOPE system.International Journal of Engineering Science
and Technology (IJSET)-Vol. 3, No. 3, March 2011,
Our project “Talking energy meter” is mainly intended
pp.2329-2334.
to get an alert through voice if the usage goes beyond a
[11] Shwehdi. M.H and Jackson. C (1996). A
set usage level. This system used a voice circuit into
microprocessor based digital wattmeter system design.
which a predefined alert message is stored. The energy
Proceedings of the 31st Intersociety Conference on
meter, voice circuit and load is interfaced to the micro
Energy Conversion Engineering 31: 1840-1845.
controller. The micro controller is programmed in such
[12] Stanescu, D, Ciubotaru-Petrescu, B., Chiciudean,
a way that it always checks the energy meter readings. If
D., Cioarga,R.. (2006). Wireless Solution for Telemetry
the usage of energy exceeds the set level written in the
in Civil Equipment and Infrastructure Monitoring .3rd
program, it plays the alert message predefined in the
Romanian-Hungarian Joint Symposium on Applied
voice circuit.
Computational Intelligence(SCAI). Retrieved from
This project can be extended by introducing a GSM
http://www.bmf.hu/conferences/saci2006/ciuboataru.pdf
module which intimates the over energy usage to the
owner. The energy values stored in memory can be
retrieved and can help in plotting a power utilization
graph in the PC.
REFERENCES
[1] Hong. L and Ning.L (2004). Design and
Implementation of Remote Intelligent Management
System for City Energy Resources base on Wireless
Network. Study of Computer Application, 12: 237-239.

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