APPLIANCE WITH ENERGY CONSUMPTION REPORTING AND METHOD

• US 20110153104A1
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc. DBA GE Appliances (Haier Group Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Worthington, Timothy Dale, Franks, Darin L., Valluri, Nagaraju, Brian, Joseph Mark, Finch, Michael Francis, Kobraci, Henry Nader, Helms, Chad Michael, Drake, Jeff Donald
• Application Number:
  US12/900,560
• Publication Number:
  US 20110153104A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/291
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/47 Responding to energy costs
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

A system is provided for determining and displaying the cost of consuming power comprising an appliance including one or more power consuming functions wherein each of the one or more power consuming functions includes an associated power consumption amount. The system compensates for line voltage variations by sensing line voltage and adjusting the power consumption amount. The system further provides a home energy management system (HEM) including a controller in communication with the appliance and configured to provide the HEM with the associated power consumption amount of each of the one or more power consuming functions. The controller being configured to convert the current cost of supplied energy into a power consumption cost of the associated power consumption amount of the one or more power consuming functions.

Claims

1. An appliance with an energy consumption reporting function comprising:

one or more power consuming functions, each of the one or more power consuming functions having one or more operating states associated with respective power consumption value;

a controller operable to activate the one or more power consuming functions, the controller configured to determine an energy consumption amount for the appliance by accumulating the power consumption amounts for each power consuming function based on the amount of time each operating state is detected; and

a communication interface for communicating the energy consumption amount.

2. An appliance as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a memory accessible by the controller for storing one or more power consumption value.

3. An appliance as set forth in claim 2, wherein the one or more power consumption values comprise a monetary value per unit of time.

4. The appliance as set forth in claim 3, wherein the power consumption value is multiplied by a respective cycle time to calculate the energy cost of each of the one or more power consuming functions.

5. The appliance as set forth in claim 4, wherein the energy cost of each of the one or more power consuming functions is summed by the controller to provide a total energy cost consumption of the appliance.

6. An appliance as set forth in claim 1, wherein the communication device includes a display associated with the appliance for displaying the amount of energy consumed.

7. An appliance as set forth in claim 6, wherein the appliance further comprises an input for receiving energy cost data to be used by the controller for displaying the amount of energy consumed as a monetary amount.

8. An appliance as set forth in claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to sense a line voltage of power supplied to the appliance, and further configured to adjust the power consumption values based on the sensed line voltage to thereby account for variances in line voltage.

9. An appliance as set forth in claim 8, wherein the appliance is configured to report the local line voltage via the communication interface.

10. An appliance as set forth in claim 1, wherein the communication interface is further configured to receive a line voltage from a remote source, and communicate the line voltage to the controller, and wherein the controller is configured to adjust the power consumption values based on the sensed line voltage to thereby account for variances in line voltage.

11. A method of determining the energy consumption of an appliance comprising:

associating one or more operating states of one or more power consuming functions of an appliance with a respective power consumption value;

detecting activation of the one or more operating states; and

calculating energy usage of the appliance by accumulating the power consumption value for each power consuming function based on the amount of time each operating state is detected.

12. A method as set forth in claim 11, wherein the one or more power consumption values comprise a monetary value per unit of time, and whereby the power consumption value is multiplied by a respective cycle time to calculate an energy cost of each of the one or more power consuming functions.

13. A method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the energy cost of each of the one or more power consuming functions is summed by a processor to provide a total energy cost of the appliance.

14. A method as set forth in claim 11, further comprising displaying an amount of energy consumed on a display associated with the appliance.

15. A method as set forth in claim 11, further comprising sensing a line voltage of power supplied to the appliance, and adjusting the power consumption values based on the sensed line voltage to thereby account for variances in line voltage.

16. A method as set forth in claim 15, further comprising reporting the local line voltage via a communication interface to a home energy manager.

17. A method as set forth in claim 11, further comprising receiving the line receive a line voltage from a remote source, and adjusting the power consumption values based on the sensed line voltage to thereby account for variances in line voltage.