Designing a wireless sensor with ultra-capacitor and PV microcell for smart building energy management

Building owners face a number of challenges, as they search for ways to reduce energy consumption, lower operating costs, and manage modern technology and systems. A research group from Aerospace School of Madrid has addressed these aims by developing a real-time building management system that consists of a plurality of transmitter nodes, a central controller, and a user interface. Monitoring, control, and actuation systems lack reliable and cost effective data logging and measuring devices of energy parameters in buildings. In this paper, a new concept of wireless sensors is recommended, powered by PV microcells and electric double layer capacitors. With these power sources, the sensor can send data every minute without being affected by the absence of sunlight. The feasibility of such a sensor was studied empirically and the findings are reported in this paper.