Wireless M-bus
Wireless version of Mbus standard covered by innovative three wire connections using EBV chip Hermes
With its ‘Hermes’ chip, EBV Elektronik has brought a monolithically integrated component for M-Bus communication to the market that requires very little power for its operation, but nevertheless has a high driving load. The IC actively supports a low-power mode, which is very efficient especially for wireless M-Bus applications. Energy suppliers are currently experimenting with many different methods for collecting consumption data. However, the most convenient method is likely to be reading through an Internet gateway. Smart-grid technology ensures that electricity networks are no longer strictly uni-directional but operate flexibly; smart grids also bring the communication into the house. As an intelligent network, the smart grid, allows flexible control of power flow, in which the inclusion of the energy consumer plays an important role, since consumers will also be able to control the smart grid in the future. Thus, for example, a refrigerator can be controlled via a smart grid in such a way that it cools more strongly in order not to place additional load on the network in the high-consumption hours of the morning. In this way, a well-insulated freezer can shift most of its cooling activity (and therefore its consumption of electricity from the public grid) to the periods of low consumption. Whether a dishwasher begins its rinsing at 10 pm or at 3 am, is irrelevant to the consumer, because the latter only wants to put away dishes that are reliably washed and dried at a suitable time by the following morning. Depending on the network load, a smart grid can control an intelligent dishwasher so that it completes its work at an optimal time when the cheapest electricity tariff also applies. Smart grids can only be realised in the first place with appropriate communication between all parties involved, and it is here that communication via radio links comes into play. In particular, the communication of terminal devices such as refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, etc., with a central unit should preferably be via wireless systems, among which ZigBee is a prime candidate, operating in the 2.4 GHz area. The central smart-grid interface within a residential unit can communicate wireless with the power grid.