Determination of a state of operation of a domestic appliance

• US 10,218,532 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2015
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Gas Trading Limited (Centrica PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Gas Trading Limited (Centrica PLC)
• Inventors: Bryce, Richard John, Anning, James Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Bui, Bryan
• Application Number:
  US15/125,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20170078111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,448 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

Determination of a state of operation of a domestic appliance In one embodiment it is provided a method for determining a state of operation of a domestic appliance (2) in a plurality of domestic appliances (2), having: receiving (S10), from the domestic appliance (2), a time series (51, 52, 53, 54) of data (5) relating to the operation of the domestic appliance (2) over a cycle (4, 7) of operation; and determining (S20) the state of operation of the domestic appliance (2) based on comparing the received time series (51, 52, 53, 54) with a model of time series (151, 152, 153, 154; 251, 252, 253, 254, 255; 351, 352, 353, 354, 355) of data (50) corresponding to the operation of the plurality of domestic appliances (2) over a cycle (4, 7) of operation.

Claims

1. A method for determining a state of operation of a domestic fluid heating system in a plurality of domestic fluid heating systems, comprising:

receiving, at a device from a controller of the domestic fluid heating system, a time series of data relating to the operation of the domestic fluid heating system over a cycle of operation, wherein

the domestic fluid heating system comprises one or more sensors,

the one or more sensors are selected from the group consisting of control state sensor, temperature sensor and power sensor, and

the device is configured to receive data from at least one of the one or more sensors of the domestic fluid heating system; and

determining, at the device, the state of operation of the domestic fluid heating system based on comparing the received time series with a model of time series of data corresponding to the operation of the plurality of domestic fluid heating systems over a cycle of operation, wherein

the data comprising a plurality of parameters,

for each parameter of the data, the determining of the state of operation is not performed instantaneously but performed after at least one or more cycles of operation of the domestic fluid heating system, and

the cycle of operation comprises at least one of a period of transient mode of operation and a period of steady mode of operation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the comparing comprises matching a pattern of the received time series of data to a pattern of a model of time series of data.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the comparing comprises retrieving the model of time series of data from a database.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of domestic fluid heating systems is connected to a network, and wherein the receiving of the time series comprises receiving the data over the network.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assembling the model of time series of data based on time series of data relating to the operation of the plurality of domestic fluid heating systems, received from the plurality of domestic fluid heating systems.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining of the state of operation of the domestic fluid heating system comprises diagnosing a fault of the domestic fluid heating system based on the comparing,

further comprising triggering diagnosing a fault of a component of the domestic fluid heating system based on the diagnosing of the fault of the domestic fluid heating system, and

wherein diagnosing a fault comprises diagnosing at least one of:

heating operation of the domestic fluid heating system with a blocked condensate drain and heating operation of the domestic fluid heating system with a blocked flue intake.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a trend of operation of the domestic fluid heating system, based on the determining of the state of operation of the domestic fluid heating system over at least two cycles of operation;

predicting a need for maintenance based on the detecting of the trend; and

triggering maintenance of the domestic fluid heating system based on the predicting;

wherein triggering maintenance comprises outputting a maintenance instruction.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising defining a cycle of operation based on at least one of:

deriving from a duration taken from a first time series and from a portion of a second time series selected based on the first time series;

using specific parameters in the plurality of parameters of the data,

wherein the duration taken from the first time series is;

a period taken from a power on signal to a power off signal, and

the specific parameters in the data comprise at least one of;

a space heating status value and a flame detection value; and

defining an auxiliary cycle of operation corresponding to at least one of;

a cycle of operation for one or more components of the domestic fluid heating system, and

an operating phase of the domestic fluid heating system,

wherein the auxiliary cycle of operation is derived from at least one of a duration and a parsing, wherein

the duration is taken from at least one of a first time series and a portion of a second time series based on the first time series; and

the parsing comprises parsing the time series of data into a set of time periods which contain data relating to different operating phases of the system selected from the group consisting of quiescent phase, ignition phase, space heating phase, water heating phase and post combustion.

9. The method according to claim 1, performed at least partly locally in the heating system.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the domestic fluid heating system is a domestic boiler.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time series of data comprises at least one of:

raw appliance data; and

enhanced data derived from the raw appliance data; and

at least a derived feature.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the derived feature comprises at least a feature derived from the raw appliance data.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing the time series of data in a line graph format.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising at least one of formatting the time series of data and averaging the time series of data, to display the data over a relevant cycle of operation of the fluid heating system.

15. The method according to claim 1, comprising integrating input from external sources.

16. The method according to claim 1, comprising at least one of validating reference data and building reference data, to train or develop an anomaly detector.

17. The method according to claim 1, comprising at least one of:

defining additional, new, derived features and any associated parameters, and

configuring additional, new, derived features and any associated parameters.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the comparing comprises comparison between processed data from multiple fluid heating systems in order to characterise common behaviours and differences.

19. A device configured to determine a state of operation of a domestic fluid heating system in a plurality of domestic fluid heating systems, configured to:

receive, from a controller of the domestic fluid heating system, a time series of data relating to the operation of the domestic fluid heating system over a cycle of operation, wherein

the domestic fluid heating system comprises one or more sensors,

the one or more sensors are selected from the group consisting of control state sensor, temperature sensor and power sensor, and

the device is configured to receive data from at least one of the one or more sensors of the domestic fluid heating system; and

determine the state of operation of the domestic fluid heating system based on comparing the received time series with a model of time series of data corresponding to the operation of the plurality of domestic fluid heating systems over a cycle of operation, wherein

the data comprising a plurality of parameters,

for each parameter of the data, the determining of the state of operation is not performed instantaneously but performed after at least one or more cycles of operation of the domestic fluid heating system, and

the cycle of operation comprises at least one of a period of transient mode of operation and a period of steady mode of operation.

20. A non-transitory computer program product comprising program instructions to carry out a method for determining a state of operation of a domestic fluid heating system in a plurality of domestic fluid heating systems, comprising:

receiving, at a device from a controller of the domestic fluid heating system, a time series of data relating to the operation of the domestic fluid heating system over a cycle of operation, wherein

the domestic fluid heating system comprises one or more sensors,

the one or more sensors are selected from the group consisting of control state sensor, temperature sensor and power sensor, and

the device is configured to receive data from at least one of the one or more sensors of the domestic fluid heating system; and

determining, at the device, the state of operation of the domestic fluid heating system based on comparing the received time series with a model of time series of data corresponding to the operation of the plurality of domestic fluid heating systems over a cycle of operation, wherein

the data comprising a plurality of parameters,

for each parameter of the data, the determining of the state of operation is not performed instantaneously but performed after at least one or more cycles of operation of the domestic fluid heating system, and

the cycle of operation comprises at least one of a period of transient mode of operation and a period of steady mode of operation.