Microcontroller Based Load Monitoring System

The demand for power has increased exponentially over the last century. One avenue through which today's energy problems can be addressed is through the reduction of energy usage in households. This has increased the emphasis on the need for accurate and economic methods of power measurement. The goal of providing such data is to optimize and reduce their power consumption. In view of this, the present manuscript focuses on the design and implementation of precise and reliable load monitoring system using PIC microcontroller chip (PIC16F877A). This involves an accurate sensing of voltage, current and power factor of the load. A clever utilization of in-built ADC and timers of the microcontroller reduces the design complexity of the system. The proposed system monitors the load continuously on a real time basis and displays the parameters such as voltage, current, power factor, active, reactive and apparent powers in an LCD module. The use of microcontroller reduces the cost and makes the device compact. The proposed system has been implemented and tested in the laboratory for single phase loads.