Abstract A design methodology is proposed for electronic systems powered by energy harvesting. The methodology first considers the operating environment. It then evaluates the supply-side (the attributes of the harvester), the demand-side (the engineering application or load which receives and uses the converted power), and the power conditioning needed between supply and demand. A test case is presented in which the vibrations of an electromagnetic device are harvested, converted, and used to power a wireless sensor node. Such a node is being used for the condition based monitoring of manufacturing equipment.

In this work, we present the implementation and deployment of a wireless sensor network for the monitoring of electric energy uses in smart buildings. This wireless sensor network is based on our newly-developed Granular Radio EnErgysensing Node (GREEN), which consists of a micro-controller, a radio, a battery and a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) magnetic field sensor. The GREEN node can be easily attached to a current-carrying conductor for proximity-based electric current measurement. The intent of this article is to fully disclose the information regarding the design, fabrication and implementation of this GREEN-based wireless sensor network used as an electric energy monitoring system. It should be noted that the wireless sensing platform is not limited to energy monitoring, but can also be well adopted in other applications and deployment settings. Keywords–Smart Building, Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy Sensing

We present an ultra-small wireless sensor node that can be effortlessly attached onto existing electric circuits for real-time energy monitoring systems. Called Granular Radio EnErgy-sensing Node (GREEN), this platform contains an Atmel 2564RFR2 microcontroller with an internal Zigbee-compatible radio transceiver, a battery unit, and an integrated a GMR magnetic sensor to non-intrusively monitor loads on circuits such as e.g. residential circuit breaker panels. The GREEN device is smaller, and can be installed at a lower cost than previously proposed solutions, and can be placed in a configuration that enables self-calibration. The device may also be used in a wide variety of other wireless sensing applications where small size and low power consumption are important.

This paper presents the design, fabrication and experimental results of a self-powered wireless sensor node that can be easily attached to overhead power lines for continuous condition monitoring. The entire sensor node, including a wireless radio platform, a power conditioning circuit and analog sensors, is powered by an AC electromechanical energy harvester, which converts magnetic field energy emanating from the current in the power lines to electric energy. The prototype presented in this work measures temperature on overhead power lines and reports these readings to a base station. The relationship between the current carried by the power lines and the the frequency at which it is able to report the temperature readings is shown by both simulation and experimental results. This work demonstrates the ability of the AC electromechanical energy harvester to power commercially available sensing and wireless electronics. Its small footprint will allow the easy installation of these sensor nodes, and potentially enable the large-scale deployment of such wireless sensor nodes for electric power infrastructures at lower costs.