ENERGY MONITORING DEVICE
First Claim
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1. An energy use display device for monitoring energy consumption of an electrical appliance, comprising:
- a device body comprising a housing with a front side and a back side, with protruding electrodes for insertion into a wall outlet, with said device body further comprising electrode receiving wells equivalent to a wall outlet, for electrical plug-in of an electrical appliance to be monitored;
a monitoring circuit to sense how much electricity said electrical appliance is using;
a time tracking unit to aid in energy monitoringa memory unit to record historical energy usage;
a forecasting unit to project the monthly use of electricity of said appliance based on measured energy usage of said appliance for a period of time;
a visual display of energy use projection of said appliance, comprising a plurality of LED indicators, with each LED indicator corresponding to an amount of electricity projected to be used in a month.
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Abstract
Disclosed is an electrical monitoring device which uses a predictive algorithm for projecting a likely energy cost for an appliance. The current power usage of an attached appliance is measured, and combined with past power usages, and projected energy consumption based on usage trends is calculated, and displayed by an array of multiple LED lights, with different colors indicating different consumption ranges. Projected energy costs are calculated from information included in a cost look-up chart.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An energy use display device for monitoring energy consumption of an electrical appliance, comprising:
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a device body comprising a housing with a front side and a back side, with protruding electrodes for insertion into a wall outlet, with said device body further comprising electrode receiving wells equivalent to a wall outlet, for electrical plug-in of an electrical appliance to be monitored; a monitoring circuit to sense how much electricity said electrical appliance is using; a time tracking unit to aid in energy monitoring a memory unit to record historical energy usage; a forecasting unit to project the monthly use of electricity of said appliance based on measured energy usage of said appliance for a period of time; a visual display of energy use projection of said appliance, comprising a plurality of LED indicators, with each LED indicator corresponding to an amount of electricity projected to be used in a month. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 18)
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12. A method of monitoring and displaying energy use comprising the steps of:
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monitoring the power consumption of an appliance at an outlet for a selected period of time, to establish a consumption baseline, and storing said power consumption data and baseline in memory; combining the forecast baseline with current or recent consumption by use of a forecasting algorithm to project an energy consumption forecast; comparing the consumption forecast to said baseline that was previously captured; and providing a visual indication representative of projected energy costs. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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17. An energy use display device for monitoring energy consumption of an electrical appliance, comprising:
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a device body comprising a housing with protruding electrodes for insertion into a wall outlet, with said device body further comprising electrode receiving wells equivalent to a wall outlet, for electrical plug-in of an electrical appliance to be monitored; a monitoring circuit to sense how much electricity said electrical appliance is using; a time tracking unit to aid in energy monitoring a memory unit for storing past measurements of energy usage; a forecasting unit to calculate and project a predicted monthly use of electricity of said appliance based on measured energy usage of said appliance for a period of time, with recent usage given more weight in said calculation; a visual display of energy use projection of said appliance, comprising a plurality of multicolor LED indicators, with each LED indicator corresponding to an amount of electricity projected to be used in a month, and with each color indicating a different range of values, so that said LED indicators display a first color until that range is exceeded, then a second color until that range is exceeded, and a third color for a third range of values; a multi color range indicator for indicating a different range for the LED indicators, so that when a first color is shown in the range indicator, the ranges of values for the colors of the LED indicators are at a first level, and when a second or other color is shown on the range indicator, the values represented by the LED indicators are a second and higher range of values.
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Specification