Electrical Energy Usage Monitoring System

• US 20100094475A1
• Filed: 10/14/2008
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gilbert Masters, Marcos B. Pernia
• Original Assignee: Enmetric Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Masters, Gilbert, Pernia, Marcos B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,494,686 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/292
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/16 The load or loads being an Information and Communication Technology [ICT] facility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 30/60 Planning or developing urban green infrastructure
• 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 20/00 Management or operation of end-user stationary applications or the last stages of power distribution; Controlling, monitoring or operating thereof

Abstract

A system and method consisting of networked modular sensors and a data processing/display system to detect, process, manage and present both real-time and historic electrical energy usage data (metrics, statistics, etc), additionally allowing the intelligent management of energy usage through consumer education as well as both manual and automated usage controls.

Wherein sensors are integrated into the standardized form-factor components typical of household and commercial electrical interfaces, such as circuit breakers, wall outlets, light switches, plug ends, power strips, etc, additionally allowing integration with appliances or other load devices and being capable of processing data;

Wherein sensors and the associated processing, display and management systems are capable of communicating with each other.

Claims

1-14. -14. (canceled)

15. A system for monitoring, storing and processing electrical energy usage data at a residence or business site for display, management and remediation, where said system comprises one or more electrical energy sensing/detecting/controlling nodes coupled with a programmable management and display console providing a user interface and other input/output interfaces and running the proposed electrical energy usage management, processing, display and control/remediation software system, wherein

(a) the Node is integrated into the standard form-factor of common electrical interface devices, such that installation and use of said device does not differ from that of standard or common versions of like devices and having:

(1) a sensor circuit to measure electrical current, voltage, volt amps, power, phase, noise and power factor (2) a processing circuit to operate on data generated by the detecting circuit as well as manage operations such as communication and command processing (3) memory associated with the processing circuit (4) a load control circuit to disconnect electrical energy from the load (5) a bi-directional communication controller and interface for both sending processed data and receiving inbound data (6) a power supply circuit providing electrical energy to all the components comprising a Node and said electrical energy being drawn from the electrical energy source being monitored and additionally monitoring its own electrical energy consumption;

(b) the management and display console comprising (1) a central processing unit (CPU) (2) memory associated with the CPU (3) a power supply to power the management and display console (4) abi-directional communication controller and interface for sending and receiving data between a management and display console and the described sensing/detecting nodes (5) abi-directional communication controller and interface for sending and receiving data between the management and display console and an IP network such as the Internet (6) an touch screen type display screen for inputting to the management and display console (7) an operating system to manage interactions between the user mode operations and the described systems hardware (8) supporting hardware and software typical of a personal type computer system for operations such as basic input/output, graphically displaying data and generating sound (9) one or more input/output interfaces typical of a personal type computer, such as USB and RS-232; and

(c) the Software comprising multiple logical modules designed to communicate with a plurality of Nodes and Consoles, collect, process, store and display data and providing a user interface to manage the proposed system and associated data, and comprising;

(1) a transport module to manage communication of data to and from the Software (2) a data collection and compression module responsible for collecting and organizing and compressing the size of data (3) a data storage module providing a structure in which data may be stored, retrieved, and managed (4) a profiling engine module responsible for analyzing data and identifying patterns in said data that can be labeled profiles (5) a report generator module to analyze data and generate reports based on said data (6) a data management module responsible for general management of data (7) a remediation control module to issue remediation commands and enforce policy (8) a data processing module to manage general data processing (9) a user interface module responsible for organizing and displaying data as well as taking user input (10) a real-time event engine to process real-time events as they are received b the software and (10) an authentication and security module to manage authentication, and cryptographic processing.

16. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node (a) further comprising non-volatile memory such as flash memory or a hard disk drive for storing and manipulating data intended to persist without power.

17. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node (a) further comprising:

non-volatile memory such as read-only memory (ROM) whose contents can be read-only accessed.

18. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node (a) further comprising:

a status indication system such as one or more Light Emitting Diodes (LED'"'"'s) emitting pulse patterns or a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) reflecting the current status of the system such as connection status with the management console and state of load control circuit.

19. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node (a) further comprising a manual override switch facilitating disabling the load control circuit.

20. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node (a) further comprising a band-pass filter component to filter particular frequencies or ranges of frequencies on the carrier wire from crossing the Node.

21. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node (a) further comprising a discrete management interface such as USB or RS-232.

22. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node is integrated into an appliance load device.

23. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the Node is powered by an external power source.

24. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the management and display console is software installed on a personal type computer system.

25. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the management and display console is software installed on a remote computer system.

26. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the management and display consoles bi-directional communication controller and interface is a discrete device bridging the Nodes communication medium with that of the management and display console.

27. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the management and display console include one or more physical input interfaces for user input.

28. The system and apparatus of claim 15, wherein the management and display console includes one or more user authentication interfaces for controlling access to the console, associated software, and data.