Power Quality Sensor for Smart Appliance’s Self-Diagnosing Functionality

The deployment of smart appliances and the capabilities offered to the user are increasing. These devices become important investments as the user is not willing to suffer external damage that alters the appropriate operation of the system. For this reason, the disturbances in power quality (PQ) and energy efficiency are not less important than the user-programmable functions or current operating status available on these devices. All these involved in the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm and communication protocols (wired and wireless) applied to smart appliances will enable the implementation of a smart energy consumption device. This paper develops the first approach of a novel embedded power quality sensor (EPQS) to provide information related to the PQ and energy consumption about the smart appliance within an installation. The sensor and the monitoring software solution proposed allow integrating the system within the cloud. This will lead to a proper analysis of operational parameter patterns as well as knowledge of the power supply and load conditions of the multiple appliances. These data will be useful for the product maintenance and support and, ultimately, for customer service.