Importance

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Abstract

The circular array of 200 equally angularly spaced marks about the surface of the rotating calibration disk of a watt-hour meter is optically sensed to provide a series of meter pulses indicative of the rate at which power is being consumed. Each meter pulse corresponds to 1/200 of the amount of the watts rating of the watt-hour meter as represented by one revolution of its disk. These small wattage meter pulses are converted into high frequency pulses and applied onto the household a.c. supply lines. A portable display unit plugged into any outlet of the a.c. supply lines is tuned to receive the high frequency pulses and feed them as digital meter pulses to a single chip microprocessor. The microprocessor operates to count the number of meter pulses received during each 5 second period, as defined by counting real time pulses, and determines therefrom the increments of watts which is used to calculate the data to be displayed indicative of the current cost and the current cost per hour of the energy being consumed. In order to provide for displaying the cost and watts per hour of energy being consumed for a special use, such as a particular appliance, the basic load on the a.c. supply lines is first stabilized and the increment of watts for a 5 second period thereof determined. Then, starting with the first 5 second period after the appliance has been turned on, the increment of watts for the stabilized basic load is subtracted from the increment of watts for the total load on the a.c. supply lines to obtain the increment of watts for the special use which is then used to calculate the data to be displayed.

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First Claim