Self calibrating home site fuel usage monitoring device and system

• US 20120185197A1
• Filed: 06/20/2011
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lorden Oil Company, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Lorden Oil Company, Inc.
• Inventors: Lorden, Theodore J., Siroonian, Steven B., Paul, Brandon L., Nelson, John Merl
• Granted Patent: US 8,909,494 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/100
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 15/063 using electrical means
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 25/10 of flowmeters
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 9/001 with electric, electro-mechanic or electronic means G01F9/008 and G01F9/02 take precedence

Abstract

A home site fuel monitor device in conjunction with a remote central site system to provide accurate fuel usage data used in planning fuel deliveries. The fuel monitor device is U an internet based, compact, and low cost home heating site monitor device that is easily installed in the home heating site without modification to the home site'"'"'s heating system. The monitor device includes a microprocessor which measures heating system run times using real time clock values. The microprocessor computes heating system fuel usage and the rate of fuel usage using heating system run times and heating burner parameters down loaded from the remote central site system. The monitor device continuously adjusts or recalibrates the rate of fuel usage defined as a burn coefficient value to coincide with the latest delivery information received from the central site system which results in increased accuracy over time.

Claims

1. A low cost fuel usage monitor device for use in a home site for monitoring and accurately computing fuel usage of a fuel heating system including a motor for operating the heating system, the monitor device comprising:

(a) a current sensor circuit component coupled to the fuel heating system for detecting motor current to be used in computing burn times;

(b) a real time clock component used for measuring run time durations of fuel heating system burn times; and

,

(c) a microprocessor operatively coupled to the current sensor circuit and to the real time clock unit;

(d) a memory operatively coupled to the microprocessor for storing purge and fuel usage rate parameters, the microprocessor being operative to compute the burn times periodically using the real time durations and purge parameters and fuel usage using the burn times included in a delivery period and rate of fuel usage value; and

in response to each receipt of delivery time data, the microprocessor being operative to recalibrate the rate of fuel usage value based on periodically received delivery time data so as to provide a high degree of accuracy in determining actual fuel usage of the fuel heating system.

2. The fuel monitor device of claim 1 wherein repeated updating of the rate of fuel usage value upon each receipt of delivery time data over time increases accuracy in computing the actual fuel usage being expended by the fuel heating system.

3. The fuel monitor device of claim 1 further including communication interface circuits operatively coupled to the microprocessor for enabling the fuel usage monitor device to establish two way communications with a remote central site system for downloading files containing delivery time data and any changes in the fuel heating system parameters and for uploading to the remote system, files containing records including the rates of fuel usage and most recent fuel usage computed by the microprocessor since a last fuel delivery.

4. The fuel monitor device of claim 1 wherein the microprocessor upon detecting that a predetermined current threshold has been exceeded by the current sensor circuit component being operative to activate the real time clock unit and record a start time and a present time of day value, each time that the predetermined current threshold is exceeded and the microprocessor being operative upon detecting that the current falls below the predetermined current threshold following the start time, to produce a record including an elapsed time value obtained from the real time clock unit, the elapsed time value corresponding to a run time duration used to compute the burn times and fuel usage, the record being written into a run time log area of the memory.

5. The fuel monitor device of claim 1 wherein the delivery time data comprises delivery date information, delivery time data, delivery gallons data and tank full flag data indicating a fuel fill-up operation

6. The fuel monitor device of claim 1 wherein the memory further includes an area that stores timing control information for defining earliest and latest times that the monitor device attempts to initially connect with a remote central site system for uploading fuel usage information in addition to access frequency control information required for determining how frequently to access the remote central site system.

7. The fuel monitor device of claim 5 wherein the memory further includes another storage area allocated for storing burn parameters including burn coefficient data, burn pre-purge and burn post-purge data to be used by the microprocessor in computing burn times and fuel usage.

8. The fuel monitor device of claim 5 wherein the memory further includes a second storage area allocated for storing record information to be used in a next download operation, the record information including file name, fuel tank size, low fuel threshold, high current threshold, and programmable call in fuel used level threshold.

9. The fuel monitor device of claim 2 wherein the fuel usage results uploaded to the remote central site system includes run data containing average motor current, gallons used since last delivery, total run time and total number of starts, call in reason data and status data.

10. A method of constructing a heating efficient monitoring system that is used in conjunction with a heating system including a fuel heating burner unit and a monitoring device operatively coupled to the heating burner unit, the device including a computing component, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) determining fuel usage by the monitoring device computing component measuring time intervals during which the heating burner unit is running, multiplying each one of the measured time intervals by a burn coefficient value for producing a result and summing each result to produce a value indicating fuel usage total;

(b) computing a new burn coefficient value by the computing component in response to delivery data indicating an occurrence of a new delivery using fuel usage totals occurring between two successive heating unit fuel fill-up operations; and

(c) recalibrating monitoring device operation by the computing component recomputing the burn coefficient value using delivery information indicating actual amount of fuel delivered to the heating system so that over time the delivered amount of fuel coincides with the fuel usage computed by the monitoring device using the recomputed burn coefficient values.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the method further includes the step of:

(d) establishing two way communications by the monitoring device with a remote central system for transferring record files containing as parameters, the last computed burn coefficient values and fuel usage totals enabling the central system to devise more efficient fuel delivery schedules.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the recomputing of step (c) is carried out by the computing component using a IIR filtering algorithm that performs a traditional moving average computation.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the monitoring device further includes a memory containing locations storing parameter values included in the delivery information and locations storing results data including values computed by the monitoring device, one of the parameter values including the burn coefficient value and one of the locations containing burn coefficient accumulator value that is representative of previous computed coefficient values and the IIR filtering algorithm of step (c) carried out by the computing component including the steps of:

(e) adding an instantaneous value representative of an unfiltered input value to the filtering algorithm;

(f) subtracting a last filtered value from the burn coefficient accumulator value and

(g) then dividing the result by a constant value defining a time constant for the filtering.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the recomputing of step (c) further includes the steps of:

(h) computing an error factor value determined from the ratio of computed fuel usage and the delivered amount of fuel; and

(i) multiplying the computed error factor value by the existing burn coefficient value stored in memory to obtain an effective coefficient value for the last delivery period corresponding to the time between last two fill-up deliveries, the effective coefficient value being applied to the filtering algorithm.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the method further includes the step of:

(j) priming the filter algorithm with a burn coefficient value when detected as being included as a parameter in the delivery information by the computing component so that the filter algorithm behaves as if the heating system had always been operating at that value.

16. A heating system device for monitoring fuel usage of a heating system comprising:

(a) a memory component including a plurality of areas, each area having a number of locations, the plurality of areas comprising;

(1) a first area storing burn parameter information in the number of locations, the parameter information including a burn coefficient variable (Bf) indicative of a computed rate of burning fuel by the heating system;

(2) a second area storing delivery information in the number of locations, the delivery information indicating occurrences of a new delivery and fuel fill-up delivery, amount of fuel delivered and time and date of delivery; and

,

(3) a third area storing results data information in the number of locations, the results data information including a computed number of gallons burned variable (Gr);

a coefficient sum accumulator variable (Ba) and a variable (Gu) representing the actual number of gallons burned that corresponds to the number of gallons delivered since the last delivery and,

(b) microprocessor component operatively coupled to the memory component, the microprocessor component periodically recomputing the burn coefficient variable (Bf) over a delivery time interval corresponding to fuel usage occurring between consecutive fill-up deliveries, the recomputing being made in response to delivery information indicating a new delivery using the time and date of delivery together with the amount of fuel delivered and a new recomputed burn coefficient variable being recalibrated so that fuel usage estimated using the burn coefficient variable (Bf) is approximately the same as the actual amount of fuel delivered enabling efficient scheduling of deliveries in accordance with the recomputed burn coefficient variable.

17. The device of claim 16 wherein the microprocessor component recomputes the burn coefficient variable (Bf) by executing a predetermined filter algorithm.

18. The device of claim 17 wherein the filter algorithm implements the following expression:

Bf[new]=(Br+Ba−

Bf[existing])*1/filter constant wherein

Bf [new] and Bf [existing] respectively are variables representing a computed new filtered burn coefficient variable and an existing filtered burn coefficient variable,

Ba is a variable representing a filtered coefficient accumulated sum variable, and 1/filter constant represents a variable a defining the time constant of the filter algorithm over which recalibration is to take place.

19. The device of claim 18 wherein a defines a number of fuel deliveries over which the computed fuel usage closely approximates the actual number of gallons of fuel being delivered.

20. The device of claim 19 wherein a has a value of no greater than ⅓

.

21. The device of claim 16 wherein the burn parameter information further includes pre-purge and post-purge variables and said microprocessor component computing burn times of the heating system using the pre-purge and post-purge values used in determining amount of fuel usage by the heating system.

22. The device of claim 21 wherein the pre-purge and post-purge variables used by the microprocessor component being selected as a function of the characteristics of the heating system.

23. The device of claim 16 wherein the microprocessor component further includes a flash program memory having first program code, the microprocessor component executing the first program code to detect a number of different conditions relating to heating system operation.

24. The device of claim 23 wherein the conditions include a plurality of different categories of conditions including call button function conditions, critical alert function conditions and sensor function conditions.

25. The device of claim 24 wherein one of the critical alert function conditions is a low fuel condition, the microprocessor component comparing a value representing remaining number of gallons (GallonsLeft value) to a low fuel threshold value and then setting a low fuel indicator when the GallonsLeft value is less than the LowFuel value indicative of the low fuel condition.

26. The device of claim 24 wherein another one of the critical alert function conditions is a programmable threshold fuel call-in condition, the microprocessor component comparing a value representing the number of gallons used since a last call-in by the device (GallonProgUsed Sum) to a programmable threshold variable defining a call-in fuel value and then setting a program fuel indicator when the GallonProgUsed Sum value is greater than the Call-in Fuel value indicative that the programmable fuel threshold has been exceeded.

27. The device of claim 24 wherein another one of the critical alert function conditions is a constant fuel threshold condition, the microprocessor component comparing a value representing the number of gallons used since a last call-in by the device (GallonStaticSum) to a predetermined threshold fuel value (FuelUsedStatic) defining a specific fuel usage value and then setting a program fuel indicator when the GallonStatic Sum value is greater than the Call-in Fuel value indicative that the predetermined threshold fuel value has been exceeded.

28. The device of claim 24 wherein the sensor function conditions include a thermal sensor function condition and a lock-out sensor condition.

29. A home site heating monitoring system comprising a home site monitoring device readily installable in a fuel heating system and connection to a communications facility in the home site and a remotely located central site system interconnected for establishing two way communications on a communications network with the home site monitoring device through the communications facility, the central site system including:

(a) a communications server connected to provide an interface to the communications network;

(b) a system database and file server unit coupled to the server for transmitting and receiving data to and from the database through the file server;

(c) an application server unit coupled to the interface server, the data base and file server and the web server; and

the home site device including;

(d) a current sensor circuit coupled to the fuel heating system for detecting motor current used in determining fuel heating system burn times;

(e) a real time clock component used for measuring time durations of fuel heating system burn times;

(f) a memory including a number of areas allocated for storing heating fuel burner system parameter information, delivery data information and results data information; and

(g) a microprocessor operatively coupled to the current sensor circuit, the real time clock unit and the memory, the microprocessor in response to a reset operation being operative to perform an initial download file transfer operation wherein an initialization configuration file containing a series of parameters including an initial burn coefficient value unique to the fuel heating system transferred to the interface server is accessed and downloaded from the communications network, the microprocessor being operative to parse the fuel burner parameter information including the initial burn coefficient value contained in the initialization configuration file and store them in allocated ones of the number of areas of memory to be subsequently used in recalibrating the burn coefficient, and following parsing the download parameters of the initialization configuration file, the microprocessor executes a series of main loop operations that include;

(1) periodically sampling the burner current from the current sensor circuit and computing burn times using inputs from the real time clock unit and computing fuel usage based on the computed burn times and the fuel burn coefficient value stored in memory;

(2) downloading files containing delivery data and any updated parameter information. the microprocessor recalibrating the fuel burn rate using the stored burn coefficient value with the new delivery data for each fill-up operation obtained from each subsequent download file transfer operation and storing the newly computed burn coefficient value in memory; and

(3) building upload record files each containing results data including computed total run time, actual gallons used value and the new recalibrated burn coefficient value and transferring the upload record files over the communications network to the interface server for storage in the database to be used by the application server in processing the upload files and for generating an optimized fuel delivery schedule.

30. The central system of claim 29 wherein the database includes a plurality of tables for carrying out central site system operations, the plurality of tables comprising

a parameter table for storing parameter variables corresponding to those contained in the initialization file downloaded by the home site device;

a monitoring table and associated index table respectively for storing status conditions information obtained from decoding different types of records contained in the files uploaded by the home site device and stored on the communications server and address pointing to newly created entries pertaining to the different home site devices;

a degree day table for storing computed degree day information for the home site device location; and

a delivery table for storing the fuel delivery data indicating time, date and amount of fuel of each delivery made to the home site of the home site device and wherein the application server further includes a first monitor software component includes routines for decoding the different types of records and for updating different ones of the tables.

31. The central site system of claim 29 wherein the central site system further includes:

a web server coupled to both the interface server and the system database and file server unit, the web server providing access to a user interface for entering and displaying information to be transmitted and received to and from the home site device.

32. The central site system of claim 30 wherein the first monitor software component includes K factor computation routines for generating precise computed K factors by performing the operations of:

computing K factors using information contained in the parameter table and the degree day table wherein each computed K factor is defined according to the expression;

Computed-K-Factor=Degree Day Interval/Gallons Used Since Last Delivery

wherein the Degree Day Interval corresponds to a computed cumulative degree value since last delivery established for the heating system fuel storage capacity in Gallons and wherein the Gallons Used since Last Delivery corresponds to the actual number of gallons used (GalsUsed) computed by the home site device using the current burn coefficient value.

33. The central site system of claim 32 wherein the first monitor software component further includes routines for verifying the Gallons Used value according to the expression:

Computed Gallons Used=(Runtime in minutes/60)*Calibrated BURN_Coef

value wherein the Runtime value corresponds to the total runtime since last delivery and the Calibrated BURN_Coef corresponds to the device computed burn coefficient value included in the upload record file transferred to the central site system by the home site device.

34. The central site system of claim 31 wherein the first monitor software component further includes routines for computing a home site system fuel need requirement by performing the operations of:

(1) processing the computed K factors values in conjunction with preestablished ideal delivery values based heating system fuel tank parameter values for the particular home site heating system for enabling generating a list of those home sites requiring fuel deliveries; and

,

(2) using the list of home sites requiring fuel deliveries for generating an optimized delivery schedule list.

35. The central site system of claim 33 wherein the first monitor software component further includes standard optimization delivery software for use in computing an optimized delivery schedule in response to the list of home site device locations requiring fuel deliveries.

36. The central site system of claim 31 wherein the web server further includes a user display interface for entering parameters unique to the home site monitoring device for inclusion into the initialization configuration file and delivery files to be downloaded from the central site system by the home site device.

37. The central site system of claim 31 wherein the web server in response to user commands accesses the system database and file server unit operates to generate a display screen representation that includes a number of user chosen viewing options for displaying alert information stored in the system database and file server unit.

38. The central site system of claim 37 wherein the number of user chosen viewing options for displaying the alert information include:

a Show Low Fuel option, a Show All Critical option, a Show All Non Critical option, a Show Resets option and a Show Low Temp option.

39. The central site system of claim 38 wherein the web server is programmed to display normal, non critical and critical status of the alert information in different colors for ease of identification.

40. The central site system of claim 31 wherein the web server provides a screen representation of an initialization display screen to be used in initializing the home site device in addition to updating or changing any of the parameters being utilized by the home site device, the screen representation including a number of different sections used for displaying, entering and updating different categories of information in an indicated format.

41. The central site system of claim 40 wherein the number of different sections of the screen representation include:

a general account information section, a Primary and Secondary ISP information section, a heating system section, a Timing and Control information section and a Delivery/Inventory section,

42. The central site system of claim 41 wherein the screen representation further includes a status box for displaying status of the initialization process as performed by the central site system.

43. The central site system of claim 42 wherein the screen representation further includes a decommission function button for enabling a user to cause the central site system to send a command to the home site monitor device for rendering the device unusable.

44. The central site system according to claim 29 wherein the home site microprocessor during the parsing of the download file that does not include a burn coefficient value as a parameter operates to continue recalibration of the burn coefficient value by the microprocessor with new delivery data downloaded by the home site device from the central site system.

45. The central site system of claim 30 wherein the database further includes:

a recipients table for storing email address notification information organized according to home site device serial number; and

email alerts table for storing alert messages pertaining to the home site device and wherein the application server further includes routines for generating alert notifications for a particular home site device in response to detecting occurrences of critical alert indications having been stored in the monitoring table.

46. A central site system included in a home site monitoring system comprising at least one home site monitoring device installed in a home site heating system, the home site monitoring device recalibrating a burn coefficient value to be used by the central site system, the central site system connected to establish two way communications with the home site device on a communications network, the central site system comprising:

a communications server connected to provide an interface to the communications network and for storing files to be downloaded by the device and for receiving files uploaded by the device to the central site system;

a system database and file server unit coupled to the file server for transmitting and receiving files to and from the database through the file server; and

,

an application server coupled to the interface server and the database and file server, the application server including routines for monitoring and decoding different record data included in the files uploaded and stored on the communications server, said application server in response to a resetting of the home site device performing the following operations;

an initialization/reinitialization operation wherein an initialization configuration file containing a series of parameters including an initial burn coefficient value unique to the home site device heating system is stored on the communications server for downloading by the home site device;

processing and decoding each subsequently received uploaded file from the home site device including the parameters contained in the different record data containing the burn coefficient value recalibrated by the home site device to new delivery data downloaded from the communications server by the home site device; and

storing the recalibrated burn coefficient value in the database along with other parameter values computed by the home site device indicating number of actual of gallons of fuel and the actual total run time incurred by the home site device heating system for subsequent use in computing precise burn rates defined as K factors for use in developing optimized fuel delivery schedules.

47. The central site system of claim 46 wherein the database includes a number of tables for carrying out central site system operations, the number of tables comprising

a monitoring table and associated index table respectively for storing status conditions information obtained from decoding different types of records by the applications server contained in the files uploaded by the home site device and stored on the communications server and address pointing to newly created entries pertaining to the different home site devices;

and

wherein the application server routines include an on-line check routine for determining when the home site device has not communicated with the central site system within a predetermined time period indicative of an overdue condition, the application server check routine performing the operations of;

scanning the monitoring table for obtaining a date and time value indicating when the home site device last communicated with the central site system;

comparing the date and time value obtained from the monitoring table with a current date and time value obtained from the application server; and

setting an alert condition indicator when the current date and time value is greater than or equal to the date and time value obtained from the monitoring table plus a pre-established time value, the setting of the alert condition indicator causing the application server to generate an alert notification message signaling occurrence of the overdue condition.