Renesas Technology Europe and AND Technology Research announce collaboration to develop an In Home Energy Monitor Demonstration System

Built around AND Technology Research's expertise in electronic system design, load profiling and ZigBee networking, coupled with leading edge semiconductor solutions from Renesas, the In Home Energy Monitor (IHEM) demonstration makes use of leading-edge technology, such as zero power LCD displays, ZigBee communication and load profile analysis to facilitate monitoring of energy consumption within the home, to identify the appliances that are consuming the energy and to enable intelligent decisions to dis-connect and re-connect loads. Using the IHEM it is possible to identify specific load types (e. g. lamp, iron, kettle etc.) that are connected to the in-home power network, and the point at which they are connected, and then to remotely disconnect the load, if desired, using a relay within each power outlet.

The communication within the IHEM utilises the ZigBee wireless communications standard and can be further developed to use Renesas' acclaimed DCSK PLC solution, if desired. The zero power LCD is based on bi-stable crystal technology, which retains an image without any voltage being applied. This type of display makes it ideal for battery-operated, portable devices that do not require high refresh rate. The reflective nature of the technology provides wide viewing angles, high brightness and contrast, as well as sunlight readability.

The IHEM is capable of measuring both mains current and voltage, providing the ability for mains timing and quality calculations to be made. Each of the IHEM Load Monitor modules has a relay fitted inside, allowing remote power-off of the attached appliance.

At the heart of the IHEM is the Renesas M16C/28 high-performance MCU, offering up to 128K flash with 12K RAM and 4K of data flash (running the ZigBee network stack) and the low cost, highly integrated R8C/25 Tiny (running load profiling on a 20MHz 8-bit CPU with up to 64K flash, 3K RAM and a 2K data flash).

The IHEM set is available on loan from both AND TR and Renesas or may be purchased directly from AND TR. Customer-specific implementations can be prepared by AND TR. AND TR is preparing an applications note based on coded examples prepared for the R8C/M16C microcontroller families. This will explain the load profiling work that has been done and illustrate the analysis technique used.

Looking to the future, the IHEM will be expanded to offer powerline connectivity using Renesas' acclaimed DCSK PLC solution, to accept data from smart gas and electric meters and to intelligently read the mains cycle and determine when the grid is under load, automatically switching off non-essential appliances.

Renesas Technology Europe focuses on supplying microcontroller-based solutions for a wide range of applications within the digital home, such as white goods, small appliances, utility metering, in-home displays, HVAC, security, healthcare and audio visual. Peter Kliegelhoefer, Renesas' Marketing Manager for Energy Management, comments that The average household creates around 5.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year(1) and there are more than 200 million homes in the Eu25 group of countries. No wonder that the European Union and member states are focused on achieving increased energy efficiency in the home. This usually means increased demand for electronics and Renesas' role is to provide our customers with the microcontroller and communications solutions that are the perfect fit for their application. The IHEM is an excellent example of how electronics can be used to monitor and understand energy consumption within the home, as well as to take intelligent decisions on the information analysed.

Part of Renesas' global marketing team, the Digital Home Business Group is responsible for defining product roadmaps and solutions which will enable product differentiation and speed time to market.

Early in 2008 AND's directorial team made a key decision to invest internally in green technology research, seeing this as not only the next big thing to shake-up the electronics industry, but as Steven Kear, Programmes Director at AND, explained with over 40% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions actually originating from the energy we use everyday - at home & when we travel(2), it was clear to us that businesses, industry and consumers were soon going to be demanding solutions to help tackle and manage these issues. When Renesas approached us with the idea of jointly developing a form of energy monitor, the timing was perfect. AND utilised Renesas's technology solutions and fused it together with its own research and innovations to produce the IHEM.