ENERGY CONSUMPTION MANAGEMENT

• US 20110289019A1
• Filed: 02/20/2009
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Frans Gustav Theodor Radloff, Louis Johannes Grobler
• Original Assignee: Frans Gustav Theodor Radloff, Louis Johannes Grobler
• Inventors: Grobler, Louis Johannes, Radloff, Frans Gustav Theodor
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,878 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/412
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/14 Displaying of utility usage with respect to time, e.g. for monitoring evolution of usage or with respect to weather conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• 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: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

An energy consumption display arrangement, which includes a database in which is stored incident energy consumption data of a number of energy consumption sites stored over a period of time, a graphical user interface operable to retrieve selected consumption data of at least one energy consumption site from the database and to present said selected consumption data to a user, the graphical user interface having a user definable dashboard for displaying any one or more of incident power consumption-, accumulated daily power consumption- and accumulated monthly power consumption of the at least one energy consumption site.

Claims

1. An energy consumption display arrangement, which includes

a database in which is stored incident energy consumption data of a number of energy consumption sites stored over a period of time;

a graphical user interface operable to retrieve selected consumption data of at least one energy consumption site from the database and to present said selected consumption data to a user, the graphical user interface having a user definable dashboard for displaying any one or more of incident power consumption-, accumulated daily power consumption- and accumulated monthly power consumption of the at least one energy consumption site.

2. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 1, which includes access means for controlling access to the database, the access means being in the form of a login screen of the graphical user interface

3. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 1, in which the user definable dashboard includes a composite dial for displaying simultaneously the incident power consumption-, accumulated daily power consumption- and accumulated monthly power consumption of the at least one energy consumption site.

4. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 3, in which the composite dial includes pre-defined consumption zones over the respective display ranges of the incident power consumption-, accumulated daily power consumption- and accumulated monthly power consumption scales.

5. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 3, in which the composite dial provides pop-up display zones on each of the display scales, the pop-up display zones operable to display detailed historic power consumption graphs for each of the respective display scales.

6. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 5, in which the pop-up display zone in the incident power consumption scale displays at least one of an energy demand profile for the day, the accumulated power consumption for the day, an energy demand profile for the present month, and an accumulated power consumption for the month.

7. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 5, in which the pop-up display zone in the accumulated daily power consumption zone displays an accumulated daily power consumption graph in combination with a baseline daily power consumption graph and a daily target power consumption graph.

8. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 5, in which the pop-up display zone in the accumulated monthly power consumption scale displays an accumulated monthly power consumption graph in combination with a baseline monthly power consumption graph and a monthly target power consumption graph.

9. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 1, which includes display buttons for displaying for at least one energy consumption site any one or more of consumption graphs, consumption savings graphs, billing information, consumption savings rankings, detailed reports, consumption overview graphs, a map display of consumption, an environmental impact of consumption, a consumption data export menu, a power conservation programme calculation page, a consumption composition tree, and a database statistics/administration page.

10. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the consumption graphs button is operable to display any one of a demand profile, a consumption profile, and a data table for a selected consumption site over a selected period of time.

11. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the consumption savings graphs button is operable to display a consumption baseline, a consumption target, a current consumption and a consumption saving for any one of the present month, for a particular consumption price, for a planned annual saving, and for a planned monthly saving.

12. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the billing information button is operable to display a billing calculation for a particular period based on a particular consumption pricing-model.

13. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the consumption savings rankings button is operable to display a savings ranking for a selected number of consumption sites.

14. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the detailed reports button is operable to display for a selected consumption site any one of a number of reports selected from an environmental impact report, a monthly savings graph, a profile graph a savings graph and a total consumption graph.

15. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the consumption overview graphs button is operable to display a combined consumption composition graph for a selected number of consumption sites.

16. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the a map display of consumption button is operable to display consumption icons arranged on a map, the consumption icons operable to display colours representative of predefined consumption zones.

17. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the environmental impact of consumption button is operable to display the environmental impact of consumption of a selected consumption site in terms of any one or more of CO₂—

, SO_X—

, and NO_X emissions, water usage, ash generation and particulate emissions.

18. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the consumption data export button is operable to export consumption data of a selected consumption site to a data file.

19. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the power conservation programme calculation button is operable to calculate an energy consumption price based on the consumption and a particular consumption pricing-model.

20. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the consumption composition tree, is operable to define and display the composition of consumption sites and consumption sub-sites.

21. An energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 9, in which the database statistics/administration page is operable to display database access statistics.

41. An energy consumption controller, which includes an energy consumption display arrangement as claimed in claim 1.

22. An energy consumption display arrangement, which includes

a database in which is stored incident energy consumption data of a number of energy consumption sites stored over a period of time;

a graphical user interface operable to retrieve selected consumption data of at least one energy consumption site from the database and to present said selected consumption data to a user, the graphical user interface being in the form of a computer icon in which the colour of the computer icon is representative of the energy consumption data.

32. A method as claimed in claim 22, in which presenting selected energy consumption data to the at least one energy consumer by means of a graphical user interface includes presenting a saving indication to a user via a computer icon on a computer desktop.

33. A method as claimed in claim 32, in which the colour of the computer icon is representative of an energy consumption saving.

34. A method as claimed in claim 22 in which presenting selected energy consumption data to the at least one energy consumption site by means of a graphical user interface includes presenting selected energy consumption data in the form of a user definable computer dashboard for displaying any one or more of incident power consumption-, accumulated daily power consumption- and accumulated monthly power consumption of the at least one energy consumption site.

35. A method as claimed in claim 34, in which the dashboard includes a composite dial for displaying on three scales all of the incident power consumption-, accumulated daily power consumption- and accumulated monthly power consumption of the at least one energy consumption site.

36. A method as claimed in claim 22, which includes controlling access to the database by means of user verification.

37. A method as claimed in claim 22, in which the energy consumption of the at least one energy consumption site is presented as an environmental impact in terms of any one or more of CO₂—

, SO_X—

, and NO_X emissions, water usage, ash generation and particulate emissions.

38. A method as claimed in claim 22, in which the energy consumption of the at least one energy consumption site is presented as a map display, operable to display consumption icons arranged on a map, the consumption icons operable to display colours representative of energy consumption per energy consumption site.

39. A method as claimed in claim 22, which includes calculating an energy consumption price based on a particular consumption pricing-model.

40. A method as claimed in claim 22, in which presenting selected energy consumption data to the at least one energy consumption site includes selectively accumulating energy consumption of more than one energy consumption site and presenting accumulated energy consumption data by means of the graphical user interface.

23. A method of monitoring energy consumption, which includes

measuring energy consumption of at least one energy consumption site;

storing energy consumption data of the at least one energy consumption site on a database; and

presenting selected energy consumption data to the at least one energy consumption site by means of a graphical user interface.

24. A method as claimed in claim 23, which includes setting at least one energy consumption saving target for the at least one energy consumption site.

25. A method as claimed in claim 24, in which the at least one energy consumption saving target is any one of a self imposed target and an enforced energy consumption saving target.

26. A method as claimed in claim 24, in which the energy consumption saving target is matched to a particular energy consumption profile.

27. A method as claimed in claim 26, which includes determining an energy consumption baseline for the at least one user.

28. A method as claimed in claim 27, in which the energy consumption baseline is matched to a particular energy consumption profile.

29. A method as claimed in claim 28, in which the selected energy consumption data is presented as a consumption graph over a selected period of time.

30. A method as claimed in claim 29, in which the energy consumption saving target is superimposed over the energy consumption graph for a selected period of time.

31. A method as claimed in claim 29, in which the energy consumption baseline is superimposed over the energy consumption graph for a selected period of time.