HOUSEHOLD ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYTEM

• US 20110035060A1
• Filed: 07/26/2010
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Centrica Hive Limited (Centrica PLC)
• Original Assignee: AlertMe.com Ltd. (Centrica PLC)
• Inventors: Oswald, James Ian
• Granted Patent: US 8,600,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/278
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house

Abstract

A household energy management system uses measurements of the household electricity supply to identify and to determine the energy consumption of individual household appliances. From these measurements, models can be built of the behavior of the occupants of the house, the thermal properties of the house and the efficiency of the appliances. Using the models, the household appliances—in particular heating and cooling appliances—can be controlled to optimize energy efficiency; and maintenance programs for the appliances and for the house itself can be recommended to the householder or arranged with a service company.

Claims

1. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building, comprising:

at least one centrally-located sensor which measures electrical energy use by the building or a portion thereof in order to identify a type of appliance operated by an occupant of the building;

a data store of stored energy use reference characteristics for common occupant-operated electrical appliances a data store of stored reference characteristics for levels of occupant activity corresponding to the use of common types of occupant-operated electrical appliances;

a data store of occupant-operated appliances located within the building said appliances having been identified by energy use reference characteristics during an initialization phase;

a modelling means for storing and analyzing the measured electrical energy use data supplied by said at least one centrally-located sensor;

a controller responsive to said modelling means for automatically controlling the operation of said heating or cooling; and

wherein an operation phase of said energy management system comprises the steps of;

measuring electrical energy use supplied by said centrally-located sensor resulting from operation of an electrical appliance;

determining, based on said measured electrical energy use that a specific type of occupant-operated electrical appliance is operating;

determining a resultant level of occupant activity corresponding to the use of said specific type of occupant-operated electrical appliance, the resultant level of occupant activity determined by way of comparison with stored reference characteristics for levels of occupant activity corresponding to common occupant-operated electrical appliances; and

utilizing the controller to automatically control the operation of said heating or cooling in response to the level of occupant activity determined by said modelling means.

2. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 1 wherein operation of said energy management system further comprises identifying whether one of the appliances found in the data store of occupant-operated appliances is drawing power.

3. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 1 wherein the initialization phase comprises:

setting the modelling means to an initialization mode;

for every occupant operated appliance to be monitored by the system;

turning on each occupant-operated appliance individually, verifying that modelling means has correctly identified the appliance type, providing the relative location of each appliance within the building, shutting down the appliance; and

setting the modelling means to an operation mode.

4. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 3 wherein the initialization phase further comprises adding a temporary moveable sensor to the occupant-operated appliance to aid in the identification of appliance type.

5. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 4 wherein the temporary moveable sensor includes a means to locate the appliance within the building.

6. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 5 wherein the temporary moveable sensor comprises a plug adapter.

7. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 1 wherein the system comprises only one centrally-located sensor which measures energy use within the entire building.

8. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 7 wherein the only one centrally-located sensor comprises a single sensor connected in series between an electrical point of entry to the building and interior building wiring.

9. The system for controlling energy use in a building according to claim 1 wherein the operation of said energy management system further comprises determining the location of the users within the building on the basis of the type of occupant-operated electrical appliance is running.

10. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building, comprising:

at least one centrally located sensor;

a measuring means wherein said measuring means measures overall energy use in a building using at least one centrally-located sensor;

a baseline data store containing baseline energy use measurements gathered by said measuring means;

a current-use data store containing current energy use measurements which occur;

a modelling means; and

a controller wherein said controller controls the operation of heating or cooling;

wherein the operation of said energy management system comprises the steps of;

storing the baseline energy use in a baseline data store;

storing the current energy use in a current-use data store;

modelling a level of activity by building occupants by comparing the baseline data store with the current-use data store to form a model of appliance utilization by the occupants; and

utilizing said controller to automatically control the operation of heating or cooling according to the model of the appliance utilizations by the occupants;

wherein a change in energy use as reported by said centrally located sensor may causes a change in the operation of heating or cooling.

11. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 10 wherein at least one centrally-located sensor comprises one electricity sensor.

12. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 10 wherein said building comprises a single-family dwelling.

13. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 10 wherein the baseline data store comprises a computer database and the current energy use data store comprises a computer database.

14. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 10 wherein said modelling means further comprises a time tracking means dividing time into one or more time periods.

15. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 14 wherein said time periods comprise hours of the day and days of the week.

16. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 15 wherein said model of appliance utilization comprises data store of appliances expected to be operating during each time period.

17. An energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building, comprising:

at least one centrally located sensor;

a measuring means wherein said measuring means measures overall energy use in a building using said at least one centrally-located sensor;

a baseline data store containing baseline energy use measurements gathered by said measuring means;

a current-use data store containing current energy use measurements which occur;

a modelling means; and

a controller wherein said controller controls the operation of heating or cooling;

wherein the operation of said energy management system comprises the steps of;

storing the baseline energy use in a baseline data store;

storing the current energy use in a current-use data store;

modelling a level of activity by building occupants by comparing the baseline data store with the current-use data store to form a model of patterns of behaviour of the occupants; and

utilizing said controller to automatically control the operation of heating or cooling according to the model of the patterns of behaviour of the occupants;

wherein a change in energy use as reported by said centrally located sensor may causes a change in the operation of heating or cooling.

18. The energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 17 wherein the operation of said energy management system further comprises a change in energy use as reported by said centrally located sensor which causes a change in the operation of heating or cooling when said change in energy use deviates from the model of patterns of behaviour by a predetermined amount.

19. The energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 18 wherein the modelling means comprises means of tracking time and expected level of occupant activity at each time period.

20. The energy management system for controlling heating or cooling in a building of claim 19 wherein predetermined amount of change indicates that occupants are active during a time period when said occupants would normally not be active.