Power Monitoring and Analysis System for Identifying Individual Electrical Devices

• US 20100287489A1
• Filed: 05/05/2009
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verlitics LLC
• Original Assignee: Verlitics LLC
• Inventors: Alles, Harold Gene
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/772
• 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 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving

Abstract

The invention is a method for measuring and processing a plurality of electrical parameters of a common alternating current (AC) service that supplies multiple different electrical devices such that the power use and total power used by each of multiple devices is determined. Sensors provide high resolution signals corresponding to the current and voltage of the AC power supplied to the service panel typical of those used in residential construction. Analog-to-digital conversion and processing circuits produce multiple electrical parameters with 16- to 24-bit resolution at a sampling rate sufficient to characterize rapid transitions. The electrical parameters change rapidly when electrical devices transition between on and off. These transitions are detected, measured, characterized, and stored. The transition characterizations of multiple on-off cycles are grouped and analyzed to produce unique transition characterizations for each device or set of devices that are essentially electrically identical. Once a device has been characterized, the method can determine in real time when each known device is turned on or off. Therefore the method can report on present and historical power usage of each known device, or set of essentially identical known devices.

Claims

1. A process for monitoring the operating status of a plurality of different electrical devices supplied by a common alternating current service, said status comprising the on-off state of each of a plurality of said devices, the condition of said on-off state selected from the group consisting of on and off, said process for monitoring comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a set of sequential transition reports, said set occurring during a period of time for storing, each said transition report containing a plurality of transition parameters, said transition parameters characterizing changes in a plurality of electrical parameters of said common alternating current service, a portion of said changes caused by one of said devices turning on, thereby producing an on-transition report, and a different portion of said changes caused by one of said devices turning off, thereby producing an off-transition report,

(b) sorting said set according to the values of a plurality of said transition parameters and searching to find clusters of said on-transition reports having similar values of said transition parameters,

(c) creating a known device and a data structure for each said cluster of said on-transitions, said data structure comprising a plurality of on-transition characterization parameters and a plurality of off-transition characterization parameters, the values of said on-transition characterization parameters determined by processing said transition parameters contained in said on-transition reports in each said cluster,

(d) searching said set to associate said off-transition reports with said data structures,

(e) processing the associated said off-transition reports for each said data structure to determine the values of said off-transition characterization parameters,

(f) processing said set comparing said transition parameters in each said on-transition report with said on-transition characterization parameter values in each said data structure to determine if said on-transition report corresponds to one of said known devices, and setting to on said on-off state of corresponding said known device, and by comparing said transition parameters in each said off-transition report with the said off-transition characterization parameter values in each said data structure to determine if said off-transition report corresponds to one of said known devices, and setting to off said on-off state of corresponding said known device,

whereby said on-off state of a plurality of said known devices is determined using said set.

2. The process for monitoring of claim 1 where further processing comprises processing a plurality of additional said transition reports by comparing said transition parameters in each said additional said on-transition report with said on-transition characterization parameter values in each said data structure to determine if said additional said on-transition report corresponds to one of said known devices, and setting to on said on-off state of corresponding said known device, and by comparing said transition parameters in each said additional said off-transition report with said off-transition characterization parameter values in each said data structure to determine if said additional said off-transition report corresponds to one of said known devices, and setting to off said on-off state of corresponding said known device,

whereby the said on-off state of a plurality of said known devices is determined by a plurality of said additional said transition reports.

3. The process for monitoring of claim 1 further comprises creating a time trace for one of said known devices, said time trace comprising the time of occurrence of each said transition report corresponding to said one of said known devices,

whereby said time trace comprises a representation of the history of said on-off state of said one of said known devices during said period of time.

4. The process for monitoring of claim 1 further comprising:

(a) providing a displaying capability,

(b) generating a display on said displaying capability, said display comprising a consumer recognizable representation of one of said known devices and a consumer recognizable representation of the said state of said on-off state of said one of said known devices,

whereby said display informs a consumer when said one of said known devices is on and when said one of said known devices is off.

5. The process for monitoring of claim 1, said status further comprising the power use by said device, said process of monitoring further comprising:

(a) determining said power use by said one of said known devices when said on-off state of said one of said known devices is set to on, said power use determined by said transition parameters in said on-transition report that caused said on-off state of said one of said known devices to be set to on,

(b) providing a displaying capability,

(c) generating a display on said displaying capability, said display comprising a consumer recognizable representation of said one of said known devices and a consumer recognizable representation of the said power use by said one of said known devices when said on-off state is set to on,

whereby said display informs a consumer of the said power use by said one of said known devices when said on-off state is set to on.

6. The process for monitoring of claim 1, said status further comprising the total power used by said device, said process of monitoring further comprising:

(a) creating a time trace for one of said known devices, said time trace comprising;

(i) the time of occurrence of each said transition report corresponding to said one of said known devices,

(ii) the power use by said one of said known devices when said on-off state is set to on, said rate of power determined by said on-transition parameters in said on-transition report that caused said on-off state to be set to on,

(b) processing a portion of said time trace corresponding to a predetermined time period, said predetermined time entirely within said time period for storing, said processing determining the power use during each on-off cycle of said one of said known devices, and said processing accumulating the said power use during each said on-off cycle within said predetermined time to determine said total power used by said one of said known devices during said predetermined time,

(c) providing a displaying capability,

(d) generating a display on said displaying capability, said display comprising a consumer recognizable representation of said one of said known devices and a consumer recognizable representation of the said total power used by said one of said known devices,

whereby said display informs a consumer of the said total power used by said one of said known devices.

7. The process of monitoring of claim 6 further comprising:

(a) generating a trace display on said displaying capability, said trace display comprising said consumer recognizable representation of said one of said known devices and a consumer recognizable representation of said time trace during said predetermined time,

whereby said display informs said consumer about the use of one of said known devices during said predetermined time.

8. The process of monitoring of claim 6 further comprising:

(b) generating a power display on said displaying capability, said power display comprising said consumer recognizable representation of said one of said known devices, and said consumer recognizable representation of said time trace during said predetermined time, and said consumer recognizable representation of said total power during said predetermined time,

whereby said display informs said consumer about the use of one of said known devices and said total power used during said predetermined time.

9. A device for monitoring the operating status of a plurality of different electrical devices supplied by a common alternating current service, said status comprising the on-off state of each of a plurality of said devices, the condition of said on-off state selected from the group consisting of on and off, said device comprising:

(a) sensors for producing signals representative of the voltage and current of said service,

(b) an analog-to-digital conversion circuit for sampling and measuring said signals,

(c) a digital processing circuit for processing the sampled signals, said processing circuit producing a plurality of electrical parameters,

(d) a preprocessing capability to process said electrical parameters to detect and characterize transitions caused by said devices when said devices are turned on and turned off, said preprocessor producing a transition report for each said transition, each said transition report containing a plurality of transition parameters, said transition parameters characterizing changes in said electrical parameters, a portion of said changes caused by one of said devices turning on, thereby producing an on-transition report, and a different portion of said changes caused by one of said devices turning off, thereby producing an off-transition report,

(e) a data memory for storing said transition reports,

(f) a processing capability for performing operations on the stored said transition reports, said processing having capability for storing a plurality of results of said operations, said operations comprising;

(i) sorting said stored said on-transition reports based on the values of a plurality of said transition parameters and identifying clusters of said on-transition reports that have similar said values of said plurality of said transition parameters,

(ii) creating for each said cluster a known device and a data structure, said data structure comprising;

(A) an on-off state,

(B) a plurality of on-transition characterization parameters, the values of said on-transition characterization parameters determined by said transition parameters in said on-transition reports in said cluster,

(C) a plurality of off-transition characterization parameters, the values of said off-transition characterization parameters determined by said transition parameters in said stored said off-transition reports that can be associated with said data structure,

(iii) sequentially comparing said transition parameters of each said stored said on-transition report with said on-characterization parameters of each said data structure to determine if said stored said on-transition report is associated with said known device, and setting to on said on-off state of said known device associated with said each of said stored said on-transitions,

(iv) sequentially comparing said transition parameters of each said stored said off-transition report with said off-characterization parameters of each said data structure to determine if said stored said off-transition report is associated with said known device, and setting to off said on-off state of said known device associated with said each of said stored said off-transitions,

(g) a displaying device, said displaying device producing a consumer recognizable representation of said known devices and a consumer recognizable representation of said condition of said on-off state of each said known device,

whereby said device for monitoring determines the said operating status of a plurality of different said electrical devices, and produces a display of said known devices and their said operating status.