System of electrical fixtures with integral current monitoring, telemetry, remote control, safety and sensory features
First Claim
1. An energy monitoring device enclosed in an electrical wall outlet incorporating load current telemetry measurement circuits comprising:
- one or more microcontrollers with analog filtering and digitizing input circuitry and firmware, connected to load current and voltage sensing devices which together effect sampled measurement of load current and voltage waveforms or their peak, average or rms values;
microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry to remote equipment of said current and voltage sampled measurements; and
AC load current conductors, terminals and connectors, and a diode bridge, ac-to-dc converter, filter capacitor, and regulator needed to extract power for said microcontrollers), sensors and telemetry circuits;
a load current interrupting circuit device including;
relay contacts to make and break the conductive path between one or more line and load side conductors, which are integral to a thermal-magnetic circuit breaker, and which are either before or after the bridge feeding internal DC supply power;
microcontroller(s) with output circuitry and firmware, or other specialized device, connected by driver circuitry to the coils of said relay or circuit breaker, to effect make and break control of its contacts; and
microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry from remote equipment to command said make and break actions of said relay or circuit breaker;
a telemetric ground fault current interrupting (GFCI) protection including;
microcontroller(s) with input circuitry and firmware, or other specialized fault detection device, connected to current sensing devices which together detect a ground fault load conditions, of a non-zero sum of all terminal currents defined as exceeding five (5) milliamps; and
microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of notice in event of interruption action by said GFCI protection feature; and
telemetric arc fault Current interrupting (AFCI) protection including;
microcontroller(s) with input circuitry and firmware, or other specialized fault detection or waveform filtering device, connected to voltage and current sensing devices which together detect series and parallel arcing fault load conditions, by spectral analysis to identify high frequency signature of said arc phenomena; and
microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of notice in event of interruption action by said AFCI protection feature;
in which the energy monitoring device encloses the one or more microcontrollers, the microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware, and the AC load current conductors, terminals and connectors, and the diode bridge, ac-to-dc converter, filter capacitor, regulator, load current interrupting circuit device, telemetric ground fault current interrupting (GFCI) protection, telemetric arc fault Current interrupting (AFCI) protection which are disposed in an electrical wall box covered with a standard wall-bezel cover plate.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electrical safety product circuit topology and its equivalent variations for sensing, control, and reporting of household AC wall current, voltage, power, and energy use, and status of its Ground-and-Arc-Fault-Interrupting internal circuit breaker, is presented herein. The architecture includes any choice of telemetry platform, presumes a plurality of its kind join a wireless network with a plurality of other products endowed with the same platform faculty. Topology variations claimed include current and differential current sensing by toroid or other transformer or by Hall semiconductor means, and include fault condition recognition by microprocessor-based algorithms, or by various analog circuit or digital signal processing (DSP) means. Embodiment variations claimed include any modular circuit breaker panel component form factor, any in-wall outlet or switch-box form factor, and any plug-in AC socket module, in-cord module, and outlet strip form factor.
31 Citations
17 Claims
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1. An energy monitoring device enclosed in an electrical wall outlet incorporating load current telemetry measurement circuits comprising:
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one or more microcontrollers with analog filtering and digitizing input circuitry and firmware, connected to load current and voltage sensing devices which together effect sampled measurement of load current and voltage waveforms or their peak, average or rms values; microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry to remote equipment of said current and voltage sampled measurements; and AC load current conductors, terminals and connectors, and a diode bridge, ac-to-dc converter, filter capacitor, and regulator needed to extract power for said microcontrollers), sensors and telemetry circuits; a load current interrupting circuit device including; relay contacts to make and break the conductive path between one or more line and load side conductors, which are integral to a thermal-magnetic circuit breaker, and which are either before or after the bridge feeding internal DC supply power; microcontroller(s) with output circuitry and firmware, or other specialized device, connected by driver circuitry to the coils of said relay or circuit breaker, to effect make and break control of its contacts; and microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry from remote equipment to command said make and break actions of said relay or circuit breaker; a telemetric ground fault current interrupting (GFCI) protection including; microcontroller(s) with input circuitry and firmware, or other specialized fault detection device, connected to current sensing devices which together detect a ground fault load conditions, of a non-zero sum of all terminal currents defined as exceeding five (5) milliamps; and microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of notice in event of interruption action by said GFCI protection feature; and telemetric arc fault Current interrupting (AFCI) protection including; microcontroller(s) with input circuitry and firmware, or other specialized fault detection or waveform filtering device, connected to voltage and current sensing devices which together detect series and parallel arcing fault load conditions, by spectral analysis to identify high frequency signature of said arc phenomena; and microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of notice in event of interruption action by said AFCI protection feature; in which the energy monitoring device encloses the one or more microcontrollers, the microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware, and the AC load current conductors, terminals and connectors, and the diode bridge, ac-to-dc converter, filter capacitor, regulator, load current interrupting circuit device, telemetric ground fault current interrupting (GFCI) protection, telemetric arc fault Current interrupting (AFCI) protection which are disposed in an electrical wall box covered with a standard wall-bezel cover plate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification