Total home energy management

• US 20030233201A1
• Filed: 06/13/2003
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Jiannong, Syvokozov, Andriy Dmytrovych, Horst, Gale Richard
• Granted Patent: US 7,561,977 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/295
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00001 characterised by the display of information or by user interaction, e.g. supervisory control and data acquisition systems [SCADA] or graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00006 characterised by information or instructions transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated power network element or electrical equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00012 using an auxiliary transmission line
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/14 The load or loads being home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/60 Limiting power consumption in the network or in one section of the network, e.g. load shedding or peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/64 The condition being economic, e.g. tariff based load management
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/144 Demand-response operation of the power transmission or distribution network
• 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: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/12 characterised by data transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated electrical equipment
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

A system that facilitates and implements energy savings decisions by a home owner. The system will increase the energy and cost efficiency of an energy supply network by providing a mechanism to reduce the peak level of energy demand. A controller in logical communication with energy consuming appliances responds to request for energy from energy consuming appliances and devices by permitting or curtailing energy supply to the appliances or devices based on evaluation of a plurality of logical considerations. The controller may be operated to provide energy to fewer than all of the energy requesting appliances to reduce the energy demand on an energy supply source, including the instantaneous peak demand.

Claims

1. An energy management system for managing a plurality of energy consuming devices connected on a power distribution system to an energy supplying system wherein said at least one of the devices is a curtailable device has a logical communication means associated therewith for responding to a logical command to curtail power to the curtailable device, comprising:

a controller in logical communication with the energy supplying system and adapted to receive data from said energy supplying system, said data consisting of at least one type of energy supply data selected from a group consisting of current energy rate data, scheduled energy rate data, curtailment request data, emergency curtailment demand data, invitation to consume energy, consumption delay request data, request for projected energy usage;

said controller being adapted to process said energy supply data and selectively generate a logical command to curtail power to said curtailable device;

said controller being in logical communication with said logical communication means to selectively provide said logical communication means with said logical command to curtail power to said curtailable device.

2. The energy management system of claim 1 wherein said controller further comprises input means for user input of at least one type of user data selected from a group consisting of household status data, personal preference data, and specific data relating to the curtailable device, said energy management system further comprising:

said controller being adapted to process said energy supply data and said user data to selectively generate a logical command to curtail power to said curtailable device;

3. The energy management system of claim 2 wherein said logical communications means associated with said curtailable device further is adapted to provide device data selected from a group consisting of device type data, current device operational status data, device specific curtailment preference data, request for power data, and alternative cycle data, said energy management system further comprising:

said controller being adapted to process said energy supply data, said user input data and said device data to selectively generate a logical command to curtail power to said curtailable device.

4. The energy management system of claim 1 wherein said logical communications means associated with said curtailable device further is adapted to provide device data selected from a group consisting of device type data, current device operational status data, device specific curtailment preference data, request for power data, and alternative cycle data, said energy management system further comprising:

said controller being adapted to process said energy supply data and said device data to selectively generate a logical command to curtail power to said curtailable device.

5. The energy management system of claim 4 wherein said device data further comprising alternative cycle data and further wherein said controller selectively generates a logical command comprising a curtailment command or a alternate cycle command.

6. The energy management system of claim 1 wherein at least two of said devices are curtailable devices.

7. The energy management system of claim 1 wherein said curtailable device is selected from a group consisting of a cooking appliance, a dishwashing appliance, a fabric care appliance, a food preservation appliance, a water management appliance, an electrical panel, and an air control appliance.

8. The energy management system of claim 1 wherein controller is further adapted to collect energy use data from said power distribution system.

9. An energy managing method comprising:

providing a plurality of energy consuming devices;

providing a controller in communication with said plurality of energy consuming devices;

receiving at the controller a plurality of requests for energy from the plurality of energy consuming devices, where each request for energy originates from an energy requesting devices; and

operating the controller to selectively provide energy to fewer than all of the energy requesting devices to reduce a level of energy demand on an energy supply source.

10. The method of claim 9, where the plurality of energy consuming devices are located within a single residence.

11. The method of claim 9, where the plurality of energy consuming devices are located within a plurality of residences.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the controller includes a plurality of home energy controllers and an energy demand controller,

each house includes a home energy controller in communication with a plurality of energy consuming devices, and

the energy demand controller is located remote from a plurality of houses and is in communication with each of the plurality of home energy controllers.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein at least one of said energy consuming devices is selected from a group consisting of a cooking appliance, a dishwashing appliance, a fabric care appliance, a food preservation appliance, a water management appliance, an electrical panel, and an air control appliance.

14. The energy managing method comprising of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving at the controller community energy data from an energy supplier, and

operating the controller to selectively provide energy to fewer than all of the energy requesting devices to reduce a level of energy demand on an energy supply source in response to said community energy data.

15. The energy managing method comprising of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving at the controller device specific data from at least one of said energy consuming devices, and

operating the controller to selectively provide energy to fewer than all of the energy requesting devices to reduce a level of energy demand on an energy supply source in response to said device specific data.

16. The energy managing method comprising of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving at the controller device user, and

operating the controller to selectively provide energy to fewer than all of the energy requesting devices to reduce a level of energy demand on an energy supply source in response to said user data.

17. In a system having a controller in communication with a plurality of energy consuming devices, a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a set of processors, cause the set of processors to perform the following:

receiving at the controller a plurality of requests for energy from the plurality of energy consuming devices, where each request for energy originates from an energy requesting device; and

operating the controller to provide energy to fewer than all of the energy requesting devices to reduce a level of energy demand on an energy supply source.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, where the plurality of energy consuming devices are located within a single house.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, where the plurality of energy consuming devices are located within a plurality of houses.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, where the controller includes a plurality of home energy controllers and an energy demand controller,

where each house includes a home energy controller in communication with a plurality of energy consuming devices, and

where the energy demand controller is located remote from a plurality of houses and is in communication with each of the plurality of home energy controllers.