Perceived wisdom says that blogs should be quick, precise and easy to extract information from; so when you have a product to discuss that delivers these exact three things, its advantages are very simple to communicate and digest.

Let’s look at the background. There are many reasons why you should monitor the real-time health and capabilities of your building or plant’s electrical installation and equipment. These include: legislation, sustainability targets, maintenance issues, carbon taxes, power quality and energy expenditure. I can guarantee you are affected by at least one of these, if not more.

But hands up; how many of you actually know how to undertake this type of monitoring? And of those who do, how many of you have been discouraged by the time and effort involved, using complicated hardware and rewiring? You are not in the minority!

In cases like this, simplicity and expeditious installation often win; and this is exactly what Schneider Electric has achieved with its new PowerTag technology. PowerTag provides a remarkably simple solution to a very complex problem. It is a compact, easy-to-install energy sensor, which connects to an MCB and delivers precise, powerful, real-time data to building owners and facility managers.

Designed for any type of building, PowerTag can be easily fitted to any circuit breaker any time anywhere in just five minutes – without the need for complex wiring or additional space. Once fitted, it monitors and measures currents, voltages, power, power factor and energy and sends this data wirelessly to a concentrator to display via in-built webpages or to provide data for larger energy management systems or BMS.

So, I promised you “quick, precise and easy to extract information from” and this is exactly what PowerTag does. Now you genuinely have limited excuses and unlimited reasons to implement an in-depth power monitoring architecture, without breaking the bank…or your schedules.

Editor's note: This is a sponsored blog post from RS Components.

Would you like to be able to wirelessly charge your laptop or smartphone just by walking into a room? Scientists at Disney Research have successfully demonstrated a method they call quasistatic cavity resonance (QSCR) that enables electronic devices to be charged without cords, cradles, or other external devices.

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Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have demonstrated a voltaic cell that is sustained by the acidic fluids in the stomach. The system can generate enough power to run sensors or drug delivery devices that can reside in the gastrointestinal tract for extended periods of time.

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Though the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) market remains in the toddler technology stage, market research firm IDC estimated the VR and AR market to be $5.2 billion. Chief Analyst Mike Boland points out that the technological shift, which encompasses the VR and AR market growth and development, began with the PC, moved to the internet, and then to the introduction of smartphones.

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Researchers have developed a prototype wearable chemical sensor capable of detecting trace amounts of toxic gases. According to this article outlining the detection principles and describing the research, the technology paves the way for inexpensive radio-frequency identification (RFID)-style badges for personal safety and security. A smartphone or wearable device can periodically (and wirelessly) interrogate the badge using near-field communication (NFC), receiving a yes/no response as to whether the badge detects a target gas. For the future, the researchers plan a more sophisticated version that could explicitly report concentration levels.

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