A Time Switching System Using Atmega328 Microcontroller towards Solving Problem of Electrical Power Wastage

Abstract

The wastage of electrical power cannot be over-emphasized in FCT College of Education, Zuba-Abuja as many lighting bulbs, street-lights, electrical fans are always ON even when not in use. The college community is characterized by electrical power wastage. However, the motivation for this research was to curtail the electrical power wastage and reduce the high cost of electricity. This research was designed to control ON and OFF time of any electrical appliance connected to its output and could as well be used as a digital clock. The objective of this research was to control the ON and OFF time of air conditioning. The design included a microcontroller (ATMEGA328) that was programmed to achieve the timing operation. The Light Emitting Diode (LED) displayed the ton (Time ON) and the t0ff (Time OFF); four keys set the hour and the minutes; and the relay was activated whenever the time set elapsed, causing the air conditioning to be energized/dis-energized automatically. A time of 3:19 was set to test the ON switching. An air conditioning connected to the developed system was activated at exactly 3:19. Also, a time of 5:57 was set to de-activate the already ON electric bulb. The electric bulb was switched OFF at exactly 5:57. The developed switching system was tested and satisfactorily switched ON and OFF air conditioning as desired and pre-set by the user.