Patent Application
20150177282
Household energy consumption is becoming a major drain on economic resources. The modern household now includes many different devices that require electrical power. Because of this, it is becoming of paramount importance to understand electrical usage profiles within the home. There are in fact many systems that display real-time energy consumption for different devices in a home. Typically, these prior art systems rely on power measurement devices that are typically disposed at a utility power distribution panel. In some other power measurement systems, power measurement devices are distributed throughout a home, for example by means of smart electrical outlets disposed throughout a dwelling.
Most of these prior art systems collect energy usage on an ongoing basis and attempt to create profiles that described energy usage for different devices within the home over the course of a particular period of time. For example, such prior art systems typically profile for a homeowner the amount of energy used over a particular week or month. As this type of information is gathered, most such energy logging systems will create comparison charts so that a homeowner can appreciate how energy consumption varies from month-to-month or from year to year. As such, a homeowner can then determine if particular appliances are using too much energy and a homeowner can then adjust usage patterns in order to save on electrical costs. Of course, the homeowner could use such energy usage information to identify ineffective appliances that may be in the home. For example, where an air conditioner is using far too much power when compared to prior years.
As sophisticated as these prior art systems may be, at the least they leave the onus upon the homeowner to determine what is and what is not excessive energy usage. For example, the homeowner must determine if his refrigerator is using too much electricity. And where devices are used on an on-demand basis, again the homeowner must determine if a television is being used to frequently. Sundry other appliances, for example hairdryers and toaster ovens, also utilize energy and their power usage can be tracked in a similar way. Again, it is up to the individual homeowner to establish his own guidelines as to how much electricity should be devoted to a particular appliance over a particular period of time.
There may in fact be some advantage to knowing how much electricity each particular appliances in a home ends up using over a particular month and in understanding how such usage varies according to seasons, perhaps or some other periodicity. Unfortunately, most homeowners are already probably overwhelmed with information and substantially powerless to optimize the usage of electricity in their home even if such usage statistics were provided by prior art energy consumption monitoring systems. And, unless there is some motivation which can be appreciated by the homeowner, beyond a few kilowatt-hours of electricity savings on the monthly power bill, most homeowners are likely to ignore energy usage statistics in deference to more important matters in managing their households. Home owners also need usable and useful tools to manage the described information overload.
With the advantage of modern digital signal processing technology and ever diminishing prices for integrated silicon chips, some proponents are uniting to create even more intelligent appliances for use inside each home. This is a dramatic paradigm shift from prior art technologies where energy consumption is collected in an almost “afterthought like” manner. In this newly developing realm of technology, the communications interface is included in an appliance along with energy metering capability. As such, the appliance itself can convey energy usage directly to a smart meter using various communication technology. For example, one system uses power line communications that provided for digital data communication directly through household electrical wiring. In this system a communications connection is established when the electrical apparatus is plugged into a convenience outlet. This dramatically simplifies the burden on a homeowner because the appliance registers with the smart meter as soon as the communications link is established. And, as already noted, the communications link is established as soon as the appliance is plugged into a utility outlet.
In Europe, an appliance interworking specification has been promulgated. This appliance interworking specification establishes physical and functional protocols for devices to communicate electricity usage and other information amongst themselves and smart meters. It is in this new technology realm that energy management within a home can be effectively realized. For example, the refrigerator can now register with a display panel and provide real-time power usage information which can not only be displayed, but also analyzed by a smart control panel situated in the home. It has even been suggested that such a smart control panel could provide not only electrical usage information from within the home but also present the homeowner with neighborhood averages for electricity use.
It has also been suggested that electrical usage information can also be displayed on other media devices situated in the home. For example, a media center could access the information provided by various appliances within the home and then present that information on a television screen. Electrical usage information and appliance control can also be established through smart phones and thermostats. Unfortunately, there seems to be known teaching as to how such display and control functions would be best implemented across a myriad of dissimilar devices.
All of this hoped for interoperability is great in concept but is exceedingly difficult to realize in practice. It is one thing to suggest a particular function, but suggesting a functional capability and actually detailing how it is implemented seems to be the chasm which no one has been able to bridge. Even if there were a home area network that is compliant with an actual and applied appliance interworking specification, there is still no suggestion as to how appliances should or could share information to the greater good, in this case reducing overall energy consumption within the home.
Existing literature does nothing more than suggest a concept of “press and play” where appliances connected by means of a home area network facilitate energy awareness and a plethora of new services which might be enjoyed by a homeowner. Sadly, it seems that the only functions now realized are those of controlling appliances on a master control panel. The fact that the same control panel is used to present electricity usage information to a homeowner is fortuitous, but only from the standpoint that the same control point can be used for both functions. What is lacking is a means to exploit the information received from energy aware appliances and other more traditional power measurement points situated within the home and to present this information, together with tools and suggestions to a homeowner in a manner that would enable the homeowner to easily establish criteria and actions for local energy conservation.
Several alternative embodiments will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings and figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and in which:
In one illustrative use case, electrical loads within the dwelling 200 communicate power usage information to a metering unit 205. It should be appreciated that, according to this illustrative use case, the electrical loads include some form of metering apparatus and a communication interface. In yet another illustrative use case, these electrical loads comprise “energy aware appliances” as described thus far described. In yet another illustrative use case, the communication interface included in an electrical load comprises a power line communication interface that communicates digital information by way of household electrical wiring 210. In yet another illustrative use case, the electrical loads 215 are connected to the electrical wiring 210 by means of a “smart receptacle”. A smart receptacle includes a power metering capability and a communications capability. Accordingly, the power provided to an electrical load by way of such a smart receptacle is measured and said measurement is communication to the home area network 210. In a functional sense, the electrical wiring 210 serves as a media for the home area network that is itself intended to communicate electrical usage information from the electrical loads to the metering devices 205. It should be appreciated that the terms “home area network” and the “electrical wiring” within the home are used interchangeably in this disclosure.
Since the metering device 205 is also attached to the household electric wiring 210 it is clear that electrical usage information from each of the loads may be readily communicated to the metering device 205. In one alternative illustrative use case, the metering device comprises a smart meter which is itself communicatively coupled to a smart grid electrical distributional system 260 and the data network associated therewith.
In currently known systems, power usage information available on the home area network 210 is displayed to a user by means of a control panel 220. In yet another illustrative use case, the control panel 220 facilitates control of each of the electrical loads attached to the communication interface. Where an air-conditioner 235 is disposed within the dwelling 200, a thermostat 245 may optionally utilize the home area network 210 in order to control the air-conditioner 235. All of these illustrative use cases are presented for illustration purposes only and these illustrative use cases are not intended to limit the scope of the claims appended hereto.
Up until now, usage information from a particular dwelling may have been collected by a utility company in order to understand the loading on the power distribution grid 260. Even though this information is available by way of the smart grid 260, individual homeowners may not have the proper facilities to access this data. Although most utility companies will allow users access to this data, the data is rarely in a form that can be presented to a user in a reasonable format. Accordingly, a control panel 220 that is communicatively coupled to the household electrical wiring 210 receives the same electrical usage information from the various loads disposed within the dwelling 200. The control panel 220 then organizes the electrical usage information into relevant formats and presents this information to a user, e.g. a homeowner.
There are in fact sophisticated control panels 220 then enable the user to establish power usage limitations for each of the electrical loads within the dwelling 200. However, as already discussed, the information presented to the user may not necessarily be comprehensible vis-a-vis the task of establishing electrical usage limits for such electrical loads.
In this alternative example method, the first energy usage indicator is received by next receiving an operational parameter indicator (step 55). In this alternative example method, an operational parameter indicator may include a wide variety of parameters associated with a particular electrical load. In yet another alternative example method, an operational parameter may include some real-time indication of performance. The refrigerator again serves as an adequate example where an operational parameter comprises an internal temperature for the refrigerator's cooling chamber. In yet another alternative example method, the refrigerator also provides, as an operational parameter, an ambient temperature value that reflects the temperature external to the cooling chamber. Again these are merely illustrative examples and are not meant to limit the scope of the claims appended hereto.
In yet another alternative example method, receiving a First energy usage indicator further comprises the step of receiving a device descriptor (step 60). Such device descriptor may in fact reflect the internal volume of a refrigerator. For example a particular refrigerator may provide 30 cubic feet of volume within its cooling chamber. In yet another alternative example, the device descriptor comprises a model number for the device associated with the first energy usage indicator. Again the refrigerator example adequately demonstrates that a model number for a particular refrigerator may be used to determine other physical and functional characteristics of the device for which a first energy usage indicator is received. These examples are meant to illustrate what a device descriptor comprises and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims appended hereto.
Once the total amount of energy is determined, a graphical representation is made according thereto. Again, the graphical representation is proportionally scaled together with the graphical allocation indicator. The graphical representation of total energy used, in this alternative example method, includes a sub-indicator that is initially set to also represent the graphical allocation indicator for a load. This sub-indicator is adjustable by a user using normal graphical user interface techniques including at least one of resizing the sub-indicator to adjust the amount of energy should be allocated to the load relative to the total energy used. Accordingly, this adjustment is used to control the amount of energy consumed by a load by adjusting operating parameters for the load. In the example of a refrigerator, the internal temperature may be adjusted to conform with a newly adjusted energy allocation for the refrigerator as subject to other restrictions that may be imposed by the user.
According to this alternative example method, a device descriptor is also received (step 110). A physical characteristic is then retrieved (step 115) according to the device descriptor. Then, a normalized operational guideline is established (step 120) according to the physical characteristic, the operational parameter and the power used per-unit time. Again, such normalize operational guideline is represented, according to this example method, as an amount of energy required to achieve a particular operational parameter.
In yet another illustrative application, operational parameters from a particular energy load are used in accordance with power usage indications and other physical characteristics to create energy usage guidelines that are particular to a particular load type. For example, a particular class of washing machine may in fact have energy usage characteristics that can be compared across a very wide geographic region. In fact, it is the particular class of washing machine and the operational parameters in play that are also important in comparing energy usage for that particular class of appliance.
It should hence be appreciated that the energy management server 280 is communicatively coupled to a device database 285 which is used to store information on particular devices and which is accessed according to a device descriptor received as part of an energy usage indications from a particular device within a dwellings 200. In this alternative example illustrative use case, the energy management server 280 includes a capability for creating an energy usage guideline. In this example embodiment of an energy management server 280, a second energy usage indicator is received film a different dwelling 200 and a first energy usage indicator is received from a first dwelling 200. These disparate energy usage indicators are then used to generate an energy usage guideline according to the teachings of the present method.
In this example embodiment, the energy management server 280 disseminates the energy usage guideline to the plurality of dwellings 200 using the wide area media distribution network 270. In yet another illustrative example use case, an alternative embodiment of an energy management server 280 receives energy usage indicators from the plurality of dwellings 200. The energy management server 280 then organizes the energy usage indicators according to device descriptors included in said energy usage indicators. Accordingly, in this alternative example embodiment of an energy management server 280, energy usage indicators are then directed to the dwellings 200 when a dwelling 200 has contained therein a device of comparable load characteristics. For example, an energy usage indicator as received from a dwelling for a particular class of laundry dryer will then be directed to other dwellings to have a comparable class of laundry dryer.
In yet another illustrative se scenario, the wide area network for media distribution 270 is disposed in order to service the particular geographic region within which are disposed a particular plurality of dwellings 200. In this illustrative use scenario, when one dwelling 200 conveys an energy usage indicator to the wide area media network 270, all other dwellings 200 receive that energy usage indicator and will then utilize that receives energy usage indicator to create energy usage guidelines.
It should be appreciated that, according to the foregoing illustrative applications, an energy usage indicator from one dwelling 200 is usable for the purposes of increasing energy conservation by other dwellings 200. As can be appreciated, this can be accomplished in numerous ways. In one alternative example method, homeowners are allowed to opt-in or opt-out of a service which shares their energy usage information with other dwellings. Likewise, in another alternative method, a homeowner is incentivized to participate in the sharing of energy usages information through offers of at least one of receiving energy usages information from other homeowners, energy rebates from utility companies, and charitable contributions made on their behalf.
As already described, a plurality of energy usage indicators may be received in the energy management server 280 and the energy management server then creates an energy usage guideline which is then shared with the dwellings. In other illustrative use cases, energy usage indicators are shared amongst all of the dwellings and each dwelling is then responsible for generating its own energy usage guideline. It should be appreciated that a system for creating and sharing energy usage guidelines may thus be embodied in numerous ways and the foregoing examples are not intended to limit the scope of the claims appended hereto.
Further included in this example embodiment are various functional modules each of which comprises an instruction sequence. For purposes of this disclosure, a functional module and its corresponding instruction sequence is referred to by a process name, a function name or a module name, each of which may be used interchangeably. The instruction sequence that implements the process name, according to one alternative embodiment, is stored in the memory 350. The reader is advised that the term “minimally causes the processor” and variants thereof is intended to serve as an open-ended enumeration of functions performed by the processor 330 as it executes a particular functional process (i.e. instruction sequence). As such, an embodiment where a particular functional process causes the processor to perform functions in addition to those defined in the appended claims is to be included in the scope of the claims appended hereto.
As already described, the memory 350 is used to store various functional modules. The memory 350 is also used to store various elements of information including a first energy usage indicator 400, a second energy usage indicator 405, a media stream buffer 410, and an energy usage guideline 415.
In one example embodiment, an apparatus 300 for collecting and displaying power usage information further includes an energy monitoring module 360, an energy presentation module 365 and a dissemination module 370, each of which are stored in the memory 350. In yet another alternative example embodiment, the apparatus 300 for collecting and displaying power usage information further includes a home area network protocol module 375, which is also stored in the memory 350. And, in yet another alternative example embodiment, an apparatus 300 for collecting and displaying power usage information further includes an energy management server module 385, which is also stored in the memory 350.
As the processor continues to operate, it then begins to execute the energy presentation module 365. The energy presentation module 365, when executed by the processor 330, minimally causes the processor 330 to create a media stream based upon the energy usage indicator 400 stored in the memory 350. It should be appreciated that, according to one example embodiment, the processor 330, as it continues to execute the energy presentation module 365, is minimally causes to create a media stream and to store said stream in a stream buffer 410, which is stored in the memory 350. The dissemination module 370, which is also executed by the processor 350, minimally causes the processor 350 to direct the media stream from the stream buffer 410 to the media dissemination interface 310. The media dissemination interface 310 then directs the media stream to the in-home media distribution network 272, from which media devices included in the dwelling may obtain the media stream that includes the energy usage information.
In one alternative example embodiment, the energy monitoring module 360, as it is executed by the processor 330, minimally causes the processor 330 to receive an indicator for power usage per unit time along with an operational parameter indicator and a device descriptor. In this alternative example embodiment, processor 330 stores this information in an energy usage indicator variable 400 which includes a power per unit time data element 401, an operational parameter data element 402 and a device descriptor data element 403.
And yet another alternative example of embodiment, an apparatus 300 for collecting and displaying power usage information further comprises an energy management server interface module 385, which is also stored in the memory 350. In this example alternative embodiment, the processor 330, as it begins to execute the energy management server interface module 385, is minimally caused to receive a second energy usage indicator by means of the media reception interface 310. In this case, and energy guidance module 380, included in this alternative example embodiment of an apparatus 300 for collecting and displaying power usage information, as it is executed by the processor 330, minimally causes the processor 330 to create an energy usage guideline using the second usage indicator 405 and the first energy usage indicator 400. The energy usage guideline is stored in memory in an energy usage guideline data structure 415.
It to be appreciated that, according to yet another alternative example embodiment, the energy monitoring module 360, as it is executed by the processor 330, further minimally conveys a device descriptor to the energy management server module 385. Accordingly, the energy management server module 385, as it is executed by the processor 330, further minimally causes the processor 330 to convey the device descriptor to the media reception interface 310. In one illustrative use case, the device descriptor is forwarded to an energy management server 280. The energy management server 280 then returns a second usage indicator, when said second usage indicator is for energy loads that are of compatible type according to the device descriptor.
In yet another alternative example embodiment, the energy guidance module 380, when executed by the processor 330, minimally causes the processor 330 to create an energy usage guideline by creating an average of the first energy usage indicator 400 and the second energy usage indicator 405. The energy usage guideline 415 is then incorporated into a media stream as the processor continues to execute the energy presentation module 365.
In yet another alternative example embodiment, the energy management server module 385, as it is executed by the processor 330, minimally causes the processor 330 to receive an energy usage guideline directly from the media reception interface 310. In one illustrative use case, the energy usage guideline is received from an energy management server 280 by means of the media reception interface 310. In this alternative example embodiment, the energy usage guideline is stored in an energy usage guideline data structure 415 that is stored in the memory. The energy presentation module 365, as it is executed by the processor 330, incorporates the energy usage guideline stored in the energy usage guideline data structure 415 into a media stream, which is stored in the stream buffer 410. Accordingly, the processor 330, as it continues to execute the dissemination module 370, directs the content of the stream buffer 410 to the media dissemination interface 310.
In this example embodiment of an energy presentation module 365, the processor 330 creates an energy usage guideline in the form of a pie-shaped graphic 480. It should be appreciated that various such pie shaped graphics may be created according to a plurality of energy usage guidelines retrieved from the memory 350. In this example embodiment, the processor 330 also creates in the memory corresponding pie shaped controls to be included in a substantially circular representation of total monthly allocation of energy 455. The controls the controls 460, 465 and 470 corresponds to graphical representations of energy usage guidelines 480, 485 and 490. It should be appreciated that the graphical controls, according to one alternative embodiment, and include one or more handle points 495. A user may adjust the energy allocation for a particular load by dragging the handle point 495 angularly about the center of the substantially circular representation of total energy usage 455.
In yet another alternative embodiment, an apparatus 300 for collecting and displaying power usage information further comprises a gooey control module 366 and an allocation module 371, both of which are stored in the memory 350. The memory 350 is also used to store and allocation variable 418 for a particular load. As a user adjusts a control 460, the graphical user interface control module 366 recognizes the motion of a pointing device on the screen upon which graphical representations described herein are presented. Accordingly, as the processor 330 then adjusts an allocation variable 418 for that particular load, said energy allocation variable 418 being stored in the memory 350. In this alternative example embodiment, the processor 330 also executes the allocation module 371.
The allocation module 371, when executed by the processor 330, causes the processor 330 to retrieve from the memory 350 the allocation value 418 set for a particular load tends to direct the allocation value to the load itself by way of the home area network interface 315. Thus, a user has a graphical representation not only of the total amount of energy that should be allocated for a particular period, for example a month or a week or any other suitable period of time, but also has a graphical representation of an energy guideline for a particular load and is then able to adjusts an allocation for that particular load relative to the guideline and relative to the total monitor energy to be utilized within the dwelling for a particular period of time.
The functional processes (and their corresponding instruction sequences) described thus far that enable characterization of a network connection are, according to one embodiment, imparted onto computer readable medium. Examples of such media include, but are not limited to, random access memory, read-only memory (ROM), CD ROM, data versatile disks, flash memory, floppy disks, and magnetic tape. This computer readable media, which alone or in combination can constitute a stand-alone product, can be used to convert a general-purpose computing platform into a device for collecting and displaying power usage information according to the techniques and teachings presented herein.
While the present method, apparatus, computer-readable medium and system have been described in terms of several alternative methods and embodiments, it is contemplated that alternatives, modifications, permutations, and equivalents thereof are to be included in the scope of the appended claims.
