This report describes the design of a low-cost current meter sponsored by General Electric Industrial Systems. The meter is intended for residential use as a means of monitoring current consumption through a one-inch circuit breaker. This application is relevant given the recent power crisis, particularly on the West coast. The challenge is to design a non-intrusive measuring device that displays accurate information to the user. The solution developed in this project achieves non-intrusive current sensing by means of a magnetic field sensor that exploits Faraday's law. These magnetic field measurements are sampled by a PIC microcontroller and are used to calculate the true RMS current. The results show the meter to be accurate to 1 Amp over a measure range of 0-30Amps at 60Hz.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Berry, Anthony Hathaway
• Carlozzi, Michael A.
• Isenhour, Dennis Scott

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 02C013M

Advisor

• Brown, Donald R.

Year

• 2002

Sponsor

• General Electric Company

Date created

• 2002-01-01

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Electrical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright