COLLABORATIVE ENERGY BENCHMARKING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20100070102A1
• Filed: 09/08/2009
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uplight, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Tendrill Networks Incorporated (Uplight, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tuck, Adrian C., Benes, Charles R., Wheeler, Andrew J., Ruth, Michael K., Premus, Rebecca F., Stimmel, Carol L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,977,404 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/296
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 21/00 Arrangements for measuring electric power or power factor G01R7/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing collaborative energy benchmarking are described. Information including background data, energy consumption data, temporal data, and/or other information is gathered from multiple sources and stored in a central database. Based on the stored information, energy benchmarks are created for measuring residential energy usage. Energy usage data is displayed to consumers in multiple formats, and permits consumers to directly compare their energy usage data to other consumers or groups of consumers, in addition to their own energy usage. In some embodiments, energy challenge programs encourage reduction of energy usage. Through such programs, consumers create and present challenges for themselves and/or other consumers, such as to reduce energy usage during a given timeframe. The progress of the group and individual consumers is displayed during the course of a challenge.

Claims

1. A system for providing collaborative energy benchmarking, wherein the system comprises:

a database that;

stores information associated with residential energy usage of a consumer;

provides the information associated with the residential energy usage of the consumer to a benchmark processing component;

a benchmark processing component that;

receives the information associated with the residential energy usage of the consumer from the database;

creates one or more energy benchmarks that measure the residential energy usage of the consumer, wherein the one or more energy benchmarks are created based on the received information;

provides the one or more energy benchmarks to the visual display processor;

a visual display processor that;

receives the or more energy benchmarks from the benchmark processing component;

creates an energy performance display that communicates the one or more energy benchmarks to the consumer; and

provides the energy performance display to a display component for presentation to the consumer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the residential energy usage of the consumer comprises background information about the consumer or a residential property of the consumer.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the residential energy usage of the consumer comprises energy consumption information associated with a residential property of the consumer.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the residential energy usage of the consumer comprises temporal information that affects a pattern of the residential energy usage.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a challenge definition component that;

receives a challenge definition from the consumer, wherein the challenge is associated with reducing residential energy usage.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the challenge definition further includes an indication of a group of consumers to which the challenge applies.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the challenge definition is received from

the consumer via a user interface.

8. The system of claim 5 further comprising:

a consumer challenge tracking component that;

receives the challenge definition from the challenge definition component;

receives the or more energy benchmarks from the benchmark processing component;

measures performance of the consumer according to the received challenge definition; and

provides an indication of the measured performance to the visual display processor,

wherein the visual display processor further receives the indication of the measured performance from the consumer challenge tracking component, and wherein the energy performance display further communicates the received indication of the measured performance to the consumer.