Team Member(s): Jhon Arango, Daniel Craig, Michael Stanton
Semester: Fall 2011
End-Product Description
One of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century will be the development of a sustainable energy conservation solution. Energy conservation in homes has become imperative due to rising energy costs, increasing energy consumption, and a world-wide shift in environmental protection concerns. Thus, there is a growing demand for new technologies that will help to provide sustainable energy conservation techniques. Automating the control of the energy consuming devices in common household devices will provide a starting point for establishing efficient usage. The goal of this project was to develop a method of monitoring and controlling energy consuming devices common to households, thereby providing a starting point for the establishment of efficient energy consumption at an individual level.
JDM (Just Do More) Home Automation: Optimizing Energy Conservation is the vision of an energy conservation solution that provides a user-friendly, reliable, and accessible product that can be adopted and implemented on a large scale. Such a product will offer end-users the tools necessary to monitor and control the use of energy throughout their homes. By using well-known and well-supported hardware and software standards, long term support of JDM through existing online communities will be available. An end-user can, therefore, expect a well-polished and user friendly product.
The current version of the JDM system is a simple 120 vac, 6.3 amp input and output design. The circuit hardware itself is rated for 30 amps, but the current enclosure and connections limit the overall rating to 6.3 amps. One side plugs in to a standard receptacle and the other receives the same. Electrical measurements are taken internally (RMS voltage, RMS current, Apparent Power, True Power, Kw/Hr, and Power Factor) and a control relay is housed within the product enclosure. The relay provides convenient on/off capability at the touch of a button, while the measurements can be recorded for reference, or used to automatically control the device . The user can monitor and control individual devices wirelessly, and by adding a gateway, the end user has access to their home automation network from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
Figure: The JDM Hardware: A custom designed PCB, within a custom enclosure. 
Figure: The JDM Web Interface: Powered by the iDigi Cloud 
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