NETWORKED ELECTRICAL INTERFACE

• US 20110282497A1
• Filed: 07/15/2011
• Published: 11/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JFC Technologies, LLC (CPS Performance Materials Corp.)
• Original Assignee: JFC Technologies, LLC (CPS Performance Materials Corp.)
• Inventors: Josephson, Kurt, Josephson, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 8,467,885 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/276
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/18 Remote displaying of utility meter readings
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

An electrical interface may include a switching mechanism and a control module. The switching mechanism can selectively couple a source of electricity to a load and the control module can be coupled to the switching mechanism. The control module may generate a query for information from a web server and control the switching mechanism based on a response to the query.

Claims

1-28. -28. (canceled)

29. A method for updating control status by a web server, comprising:

receiving, at a web server, a web request for information, the web request to include a unique identifier of a switching mechanism in an electrical interface to a load and control data wherein the electrical interface initiates a query from which the first web request was generated, and wherein the electrical interface is coupled to the switching mechanism that provides a source of electricity to the load;

retrieving a record associated with the unique identifier of the switching mechanism; and

generating a response to the web request based on the record, wherein the generated response includes updated control data of the identified switching mechanism.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the response is to include updated control data having at least one of a thermostat setting, a current price of electricity, a price threshold, a power mode and scheduling information.

32. The method of claim 29, further comprising establishing at least one of the thermostat setting, the price threshold and the power mode of the response based on the scheduling information.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the response is to include a reboot instruction.

34. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

determining whether data included in the first web request has changed based on a indication in the web request, and

updating, by the web server, the record based on the data included in the first web request, if the data in the first web request has changed.

31. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

querying a pricing source for the current price of electricity to be included in the updated control data.