The power of high-speed energy monitoring for predictive maintenance

Verv specialises in capturing and analysing electrical signals from appliances in order to make homes smarter, more efficient and more sustainable. With a heritage in high-speed data acquisition techniques and AI, the electrical data that we capture isn’t just a simple view of the power draw of an appliance. Instead, it’s a high-resolution view of its electrical signature that contains a valuable mine of information about its energy consumption, efficiency and performance.

Performance is an interesting topic to spotlight when it comes to energy monitoring. Trying to track the performance of an appliance at a low resolution (i.e by acquiring and interpreting the electrical data at a slow speed) won’t yield many useful results. That’s because appliances, white goods in particular, are complex combinations of a variety of different electrical components that make finding issues or faults very difficult. But high-resolution energy monitoring on the other hand offers a magnified view of how an appliance is performing by digging deep into its energy signature.

This is significant in two ways. Firstly, it enables us to monitor the health of appliances in near real-time. The high speed at which we capture the data from these appliances means we are able to detect anomalies in performance instantaneously. Earlier stage fault detection means an issue can be dealt with before an appliance breaks down.

Secondly, it enables us to capture a wider array of faults. We can even go as far as to isolate faults to specific components. This is a complex task that requires the most in-depth analysis. This is made possible by our unique data collection which draws out vast amounts of multi-dimensional data, allowing us to detect issues that manifest in different ways. And with the addition of AI, we can train our algorithms to detect faults that may previously have gone unidentified.

By sampling the power draw of appliances at 10,000 times a second, we can capture behaviour that often cannot cost effectively be detected with the traditional use of sensors or lower resolution monitoring. Using our specialised technology, we have developed a state-of-the art predictive maintenance solution for appliance manufacturers. This opens up an array of benefits associated with smart, remote diagnostics of appliances. These include an enhanced customer experience and reduced business costs associated with repairs during warranty, to name but a few.

By weight, the UK purchases about 1.4 million tonnes of electronic goods per year and disposes of a similar amount. Nearly 40% of this goes to landfill and less than 10% is re-used despite the fact that much of it either works or could be repaired. Smart performance monitoring opens up new opportunities to make goods longer lasting, with earlier diagnostics enabling more appliances to be repaired versus replaced with a consequential positive impact on the planet.