Residential Load-Survey and Analysis System

The successful implementation of load management techniques in the residential sector requires detailed information on the hourly energy consumption of not only the class of customers as a whole, but also by major end-use category. Presently available monitoring and analysis techniques when applied in the large population surveys required are very costly undertakings especially when information is to be gathered regarding energy profiles of end-use devices. This paper describes an economical and effective system for conducting the required load surveys. The system was developed by Thayer School of Engineering (Dart-mouth College) for New England Power Service Company (NEPSCo), and has been successfully tested in prototype form. A key feature of the system is the fact that its load sensors can be installed without the services of a licensed electrician since no house wiring is disturbed. Microprocessor-based equipment, located at each house in the survey, compiles hourly energy-consumption data for each of eight branch circuits and records on low-cost magnetic tape casettes for monthly collection. The tape cassettes are in turn analyzed for the compilation of average usage patterns describing the population sample as a whole. Self-contained equipment provided for this purpose permits survey results to be obtained rapidly without dependence on the availability of large computers and the necessary access and analysis programing and possible long turn-around times.