Consumer load measurement in automated buildings

Diminishing fossil fuel supplies accompanied by rising prices is increasingly leading to consumer awareness regarding their energy consumption. With the intent to prepare for diminishing primary energy sources, sustainable alternatives (e.g. energy gained through wind or solar power and trends towards smart grids) have been introduced and found wide application. With the application of intelligent solutions, the energy consumption in buildings can be reduced significantly. One basis for these solutions, such as load and energy management for optimized energy distribution and saving, is the energy metering of components in electric systems. This contribution shall present a field bus system that, due to its local distribution and system architecture, is suitable for energy consumption measurement of its individual components. After presenting the SmallCAN bus system and its concept, a summary of the mathematic algorithm and an example application will be shown to exemplify the functionality.