APPLIANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND GAS SUPPLY SYSTEM

• US 20110012738A1
• Filed: 02/24/2009
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Koba, Yasuo, Kubo, Kazuo, Nakamura, Hirozumi, Yokohata, Mitsuo, Saito, Hisashi, Namba, Mitsuo
• Application Number:
  US12/921,104
• Publication Number:
  US 20110012738A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/632
• CPC Class Codes: F23N 5/184 using electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/84 Greenhouse gas [GHG] management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/8158 With indicator, register, recorder, alarm or inspection means

Abstract

It is an object to acquire in real time information about the type of an appliance used at home, a cumulative time elapsed from installation of the appliance, and the like; preliminarily acquire inspection timing; and prevent occurrence of a problem in the appliance. There are provided an appliance determination section 13 that determines a gas appliance to be used from the quantity of momentary flow determined from a measured value of a flow measurement section 11 by predetermined arithmetic processing; an appliance setting section 43 capable of arbitrarily inputting appliance information about a monitoring target appliance; an appliance registration section 14 that registers a monitoring target appliance in accordance with a result of determination made by the appliance determination section 13 and an result of input performed with the appliance setting section 43; a timer section 16 that integrates and stores a time elapsed from a point in time when an appliance is registered as a monitoring target appliance in an appliance registration section 14 on a registered individual appliance basis; a communication section 41 that is connected to a monitoring center 40 with a communication line and that performs communication processing of flow information, appliance information, and the like; and a control section 15 that compares an integrated time of the timer section 16 with a preset monitoring time and outputs a signal for sending a report to a gas utility company or a user when the integrated time has exceeded the monitoring time.

Claims

1. An appliance management system comprising:

a gas appliance determination unit for determining a type of a gas appliance from gas flow information;

an appliance setting unit that enables arbitrary input of information about an appliance other than a gas appliance with an input unit;

a monitoring target appliance registration unit that specifies and registers a monitoring target appliance from a result of determination made by the gas appliance determination unit and/or setting information from the appliance setting unit;

an individual-appliance-basis elapsed time storage unit that clocks a time elapsed from a point in time when a monitoring target appliance is registered in the monitoring target appliance registration unit on a registered individual appliance basis and stores the clocked time;

an individual-appliance-basis check time storage unit that stores an inspection time or life time on a registered individual appliance basis;

a monitoring determination unit that outputs a report signal when a value stored on an individual registered appliance basis in the individual-appliance-basis elapsed time storage unit exceeds a value stored in the individual-appliance-basis check time storage unit; and

a communication unit that establishes communication of information with a monitoring center or a customer indicator.

2. An appliance management system comprising:

a flow measurement section that measures at a predetermined period a quantity of gas flow connected to a gas supply pipe;

an appliance determination section that determines a gas appliance to be used from a previously-specified flow change characteristic on the basis of a quantity of momentary flow determined from a measured value of the flow measurement section through predetermined arithmetic processing;

an appliance setting section that enables manual input of appliance information about a monitoring target appliance;

an appliance registration section that selects and registers a predetermined monitoring target appliance in accordance with a result of determination made by the appliance determination section and/or a result of input performed with the appliance setting section;

a timer section that integrates, on a registered individual appliance basis, a time elapsed from a point in time when an appliance is registered as a monitoring target appliance in the appliance registration section and that stores the integrated time;

a communication section that is connected to a monitoring center with a communication line and that performs processing of communication of flow information, appliance information, and the like; and

a control section that compares the time integrated by the timer section with a preset monitoring time and that outputs a signal for sending a report to a gas utility company or a user when the integrated time has exceeded the monitoring time.

3. The appliance management system according to claim 2, wherein the appliance setting section can perform registration of an appliance in the appliance registration section, alteration of the appliance, and deletion of the appliance by use of the communication section.

4. The appliance management system according to claim 2, wherein the timer section is made up of an appliance timer section that measures an integrated time on a registered individual appliance basis, and the control section is arranged so as to be able to arbitrarily set, on a registered individual appliance basis, a monitoring time that is to be compared with a measured, integrated time.

5. The appliance management system according to claim 2, wherein the appliance registration section also enables registration of, other than a gas appliance, appliances that take oil and electricity as energy;

imparts identification codes to respective appliances; and

manages registered appliances while differentiating them from each other.

6. The appliance management system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a report destination registration section that registers a report destination on a registered individual appliance basis and a report destination selection section that selects a report destination registered in the report destination registration section.

7. A gas supply system comprising:

a flow measurement section that is connected to a gas supply pipe and that measures a quantity of gas consumption;

a communication section that sends a communication of a measured quantity of gas consumption to a gas utility company;

an integration section that integrates a quantity of gas consumption in a predetermined period for each gas consumer;

a conversion section that converts the quantity of gas consumption into an amount of CO₂ emissions;

a comparison section that compares an amount of CO₂ emissions acquired in a previous predetermined period with an amount of CO₂ emissions acquired in a current predetermined period or that compares a quantity of gas consumption in a previous predetermined period with a quantity of gas consumption in a current predetermined period; and

a feedback section that reports to a gas user a result of a comparison between the amount of CO₂ emissions acquired in a previous predetermined period with the amount of CO₂ emissions acquired in a current predetermined period performed by the comparison section or a comparison between the quantity of gas consumption in a previous predetermined period with the quantity of gas consumption in a current predetermined period performed by the comparison section.

8. The gas supply system according to claim 7, further comprising a total integration section that sums quantities of supplied consumed gas by all gas consumers in a predetermined period of time.

9. The gas supply system according to claim 7, further comprising:

an appliance determination section that determines, on the basis of a quantity of momentary gas flow and from a flow change characteristic of a quantity of gas flow, an appliance which uses a gas flowing through the gas supply pipe; and

an appliance integration section that integrates a quantity of gas consumption in a predetermined period according to an appliance determined by the appliance determination section.

10. The gas supply system according to claim 7, further comprising:

a data encryption section that renders data pertaining to an integrated quantity of gas consumption unrewritable.

11. An appliance management system that monitors conditions of usage of a gas appliance connected to a pipe passed through a gas meter and that can receive information from another appliance, wherein

the gas meter includes flow measurement unit for measuring a quantity of gas flow, a shutoff valve that cuts off a gas passageway in case of occurrence of an anomaly, a control circuit that performs predetermined processing in accordance with a result of measurement performed by the flow measurement unit and that outputs flow information, a receiving unit that receives operating information, and the like, from another appliance, and a communication unit that transmits and receives information to and from an external party;

the other appliance has an appliance information transmission unit that transmits operating information including a code for identifying an appliance and a signal pertaining to a period from start to stoppage of operation; and

the control circuit has a first appliance operating time monitoring unit that manages a cumulative value of an operating time for each working gas appliance in response to a result of process for determining a working gas appliance on the basis of a flow measurement result, a second appliance operating time monitoring unit that manages a cumulative value of an operating time of an individual appliance other than a gas appliance in response to operating information from the appliance information transmission unit, and an individual-appliance-basis inspection time storage unit that stores, on an individual appliance basis, a time when inspection or replacement is required; and

inspection time arrival information is transmitted to the outside by use of the communication unit when a cumulative value of the operating time monitored by the first individual-appliance-basis operating time monitoring unit and the second individual-appliance-basis operating time monitoring unit has reached a value stored in the individual-appliance-basis inspection time storage unit.

12. The appliance management system according to claim 11, wherein the appliance information transmission unit integrally houses an operating information acquisition unit capable of detecting an operating state and a wireless module that transmits operating information, to thus become able to acquire operating information about an existing appliance as well.

13. The appliance management system according to claim 11, wherein the appliance information transmission unit has an identification code change unit that sets or changes a unique identification code for specifying an appliance.

14. The appliance management system according to claim 11, wherein the appliance information transmission unit has an operating information acquisition unit configured so as to acquire operating information by detecting a characteristic that changes when operation of an appliance is started and stopped, and an operation start signal is output when the operating information acquisition unit has detected start of operation and an operation stop signal is output when the operating information acquisition unit has detected stoppage of operation.

15. The appliance management system according to claim 11, wherein the first individual-appliance-basis operating time monitoring unit measures a time from when an incremental change arises in a result of measurement of a quantity of flow until when a decremental change arises in the result of measurement of the quantity of flow and takes the time as an operating time of an appliance, accumulates the operating time in correspondence with a simultaneously-determined working gas appliance, and monitors an operating time of an individual gas appliance.

16. The appliance management system according to claim 11, wherein the second individual-appliance-basis operating time monitoring unit starts counting operation by an appliance identification code and operation start information including an operation start signal that are transmitted from the appliance information transmission unit and stops counting operation by the appliance identification code and operation stop information including an operation stop signal;

accumulates the count value in correspondence with the appliance identification code; and

monitors an operating time of an individual appliance other than a gas appliance.

17. The appliance management system according to claim 11, wherein the individual-appliance-basis inspection time storage unit stores inspection timing or replacement timing, which varies according to a type of an appliance, in the form of an operating time table with a plurality of columns in which the timing is set on an individual appliance basis or an individual component basis;

and performs monitoring operation by use of an operating time table conforming to preset conditions.