Communication of historical and real-time information about devices in a building

• US 10,338,112 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2015
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sense Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sense Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Micali, Christopher M., Houlette, Ryan T., Phillips, Michael S., Rutledge, Charles H., Marcus, Jeffrey N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shechtman, Sean
• Application Number:
  US14/826,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20160147243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 709208
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 21/133 by using digital technique
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/66 Regulating electric power
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00 Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2823 Reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network device-related reporting H04L43/065; arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/20 End-user application control systems

Abstract

Electrical usage of devices in a building may be monitored to provide information about the operation of the devices to a user. The information communicated to a user may include historical information that is retrieved from a server and real-time information that is received from a power monitoring device. The historical information may be transmitted to the user device over a first network connection where the historical information is retrieved using an identifier received from the user device. The real-time information may be received from a power monitoring device and transmitted to the user device over a second network connection.

Claims

1. A system for providing information about a plurality of devices in a building, the system comprising:

a power monitor installed in the building and comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the power monitor configured to;

obtain an electrical signal, wherein the electrical signal corresponds to electrical usage of the plurality of devices in the building, the plurality of devices comprising a first device and a second device;

detect a state change of the first device by processing an electrical event in the electrical signal, wherein the electrical event corresponds to changes in the electrical signal caused by the state change of the first device;

transmit information about the state change of the first device to a first server computer;

establish a continuous network connection with a second server computer;

determine a first amount of power consumption of the second device during a first time period by processing the electrical signal, wherein the continuous network connection is maintained during the first time period and not used to transmit power consumption information during the first time period;

receive an instruction to transmit power consumption information via the continuous network connection;

determine a second amount of power consumption of the second device during a second time period by processing the electrical signal; and

transmit the second amount of power consumption of the second device to the second server computer via the continuous network connection;

the first server computer comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the first server computer configured to;

receive the information about the state change of the first device and store the information about the state change of the first device in a data store,

establish a first network connection with a user device;

receive an identifier from the user device via the first network connection;

retrieve the information about the state change of the first device from the data store using the identifier;

transmit the information about the state change of the first device to the user device via the first network connection;

the second server computer comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the second server computer configured to;

establish the continuous network connection with the power monitor prior to establishing a second network connection with the user device;

establish the second network connection with the user device;

receive, from the power monitor via the continuous network connection, the second amount of power consumption of the second device; and

transmit the second amount of power consumption of the second device to the user device via the second network connection.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the second amount of power consumption of the second device is received from the power monitor and transferred to the user device in real time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the power monitor is installed in a home of a user of the user device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the power monitor is configured to detect a state change of the second device by processing a second electrical event in the electrical signal, wherein the second electrical event corresponds to changes in the electrical signal caused by the state change of the second device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the information about the state change of the first device comprises information about a state of the first device after a state change, a state of the first device before the state change, a number of state changes of the first device, or an amount of time since the state change of the first device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second server computer is configured to:

close the second network connection with the user device; and

maintain the continuous network connection after closing the second network connection.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the power monitor detects the state change of the first device by processing the electrical signal with a transition model.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the power monitor determines the second amount of power consumption of the second device by processing the electrical signal with a wattage model.

9. A computer-implemented method for providing information about a plurality of devices in a building, the plurality of devices comprising a first device and a second device, and the method comprising:

establishing a continuous network connection between a power monitor in the building and a monitor bridge server computer;

receiving, from the power monitor, information about a state change of the first device, wherein the power monitor processes an electrical signal corresponding to electrical usage of the plurality of devices in the building;

storing the information about the state change of the first device in a data store;

establishing a first network connection between an API server computer and a user device;

receiving an identifier from the user device via the first network connection;

retrieving information about the state change of the first devices from the data store using the identifier;

transmitting the information about the state change of the first device to the user device via the first network connection;

establishing a second network connection between the monitor bridge server computer and the user device;

instructing the power monitor to transmit power consumption information using the continuous network connection;

receiving, from the power monitor via the continuous network connection, information about an amount of power consumption of the second device; and

transmitting the information about the amount of power consumption of the second device to the user device via the second network connection.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the information about the state change of the first device and the information about the amount of power consumption of the second device are presented simultaneously on a display of the user device.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the identifier is representative of a user or the user device.

12. The method of claim 9, comprising:

closing the second network connection between the monitor bridge server computer and the user device; and

instructing the power monitor to stop transmitting power consumption information using the continuous network connection.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the information about the amount of power consumption of the second device is transmitted in real time.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein instructing the power monitor to transmit power consumption information using the continuous network connection is performed in response to establishing the first network connection.

15. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform actions comprising:

establishing a continuous network connection between a power monitor in a building and a second server computer;

establishing a first network connection between a first server computer and a user device;

receiving an identifier from the user device via the first network connection;

retrieving stored information from a data store using the identifier;

transmitting the stored information to the user device via the first network connection;

establishing a second network connection between the second server computer and the user device;

instructing the power monitor to transmit power consumption information using the continuous network connection;

receiving, from the power monitor via the continuous network connection, information about an amount of power consumption of a first device;

transmitting the information about the amount of power consumption of the first device to the user device via the second network connection;

closing the second network connection between the second server computer and the user device; and

instructing the power monitor to stop transmitting power consumption information using the continuous network connection.

16. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the stored information comprises historical information about devices in the building.

17. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the stored information comprises information about power consumption of the first device and information about a state change of a second device.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the actions comprise:

receiving, from the power monitor, information about a state change of a second device, wherein the power monitor processes an electrical signal corresponding to electrical usage of the building; and

storing the information about the state change of the second device in a data store.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the actions comprise:

receiving second information about the amount of power consumption of the first device via a network connection different from the continuous network connection.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein instructing the power monitor to transmit power consumption information using the continuous network connection is performed in response to establishing the first network connection.