ENERGY AUDIT SYSTEMS AND METHODS
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for profiling the energy use of a subject house, the method comprising:
- obtaining, by the computer, a plurality of survey questions related to a plurality of house characteristics, each of said questions being associated with a plurality of pre-determined answer options;
providing, by the computer via a computer network, a survey user interface (“
UI”
) for posing and collecting responses to said plurality of survey questions, including for each of said plurality of survey questions, providing a question-specific plurality of house-feature images for presentation in said survey UI to facilitate said remote occupant selecting an appropriate answer option for the current question, each house-feature image depicting a representative house feature corresponding to a pre-determined answer option;
collecting, by the computer via said survey UI, a plurality of survey responses from a remote occupant of the subject house, each survey response indicating a selected answer option corresponding to one of said plurality of survey questions; and
storing, by the computer, said plurality of survey responses into a subject-home energy-use profile associated with the subject house.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An online energy audit system poses and collects responses to a list of survey questions regarding a subject house from a remote occupant via a survey UI. Survey responses are stored in an energy-use profile associated with the subject house and are used to populate model inputs to an energy-use software model, from which an energy-efficiency score is derived. To help a remote occupant choose appropriate answers and to facilitate completion of the survey, the survey UI includes question-specific house-feature images associated with some or all questions. Survey questions are designed to be easy for a homeowner to understand, and the survey is kept short. The energy-efficiency score of the subject house is presented to the remote occupant in comparison with comparison energy-use data together with an action message to encourage the remote occupant to improve the energy score of the subject house.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for profiling the energy use of a subject house, the method comprising:
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obtaining, by the computer, a plurality of survey questions related to a plurality of house characteristics, each of said questions being associated with a plurality of pre-determined answer options; providing, by the computer via a computer network, a survey user interface (“
UI”
) for posing and collecting responses to said plurality of survey questions, including for each of said plurality of survey questions, providing a question-specific plurality of house-feature images for presentation in said survey UI to facilitate said remote occupant selecting an appropriate answer option for the current question, each house-feature image depicting a representative house feature corresponding to a pre-determined answer option;collecting, by the computer via said survey UI, a plurality of survey responses from a remote occupant of the subject house, each survey response indicating a selected answer option corresponding to one of said plurality of survey questions; and storing, by the computer, said plurality of survey responses into a subject-home energy-use profile associated with the subject house. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification