Electrical power monitoring system

Abstract

A method and system incorporating an integral power consumption monitor-circuit breaker panel for industrial or commercial buildings and facilities. The power consumption monitor-circuit breaker panel not only protects each end use within the building against harmful overloads, but also monitors peak power demands of each end use. Electrical current, voltage and phase information is provided by each monitor-breaker. This information is then fed to a processing circuit that provides a power consumption value. The power consumption value is then fed to recording device to provide a power consumption history for each end use. Each monitor-breaker is identified by its end use, as for example, by color coding. The monitor device of each circuit breaker is designed to provide a voltage that is proportional to the circuit load. Two methods may be used to provide such a voltage signal: a) the voltage signal can be developed across a built-in shunt in each circuit braeker; and b) a proportional voltage can be obtained by use of a circuit breaker with a built-in Hall effect device, wherin the product of the instantaneous current and voltage along with the phase angle between them, provides the power measurement. The current and/or instantaneous power information can be sent to the recording device via a powerline carrier, radio link, or optical fiber. The information can be integrated to provide either kW or kW/hr readings.