Providing Electricity to Essential Equipment During an Emergency

• US 20150155717A1
• Filed: 12/03/2013
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Duong, Quang T., Gordon, David M., Schmidt, David L., Will, Scott A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,014,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/181 due to failing power supply
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/066 guiding along a path, e.g. evacuation path lighting strip
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 5/08 responsive to abnormal fluid pressure, liquid level or liquid displacement, e.g. Buchholz relays

Abstract

An approach is provided in which an emergency electrical distribution system detects an environmental alert invoked by an environmental sensor located in a particular location of building structure. The emergency electrical distribution system selects specific electrical source connections in proximity to the environmental sensor and, in turn, terminates electrical power to selected specific electrical source connections.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at an emergency electrical distribution system, an environmental alert invoked by an environmental sensor located in a first one of a plurality of zones in a building structure;

selecting one or more electrical source connections in proximity to the first zone, the selection resulting in a subset of proximate electrical source connections that are a subset of a plurality of electrical source connections included in the building structure; and

terminating electrical power to the subset of proximate electrical source connections.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the subset of proximate electrical source connections is a proper subset of the plurality of electrical source connections that excludes one or more of the plurality of electrical source connections.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

providing power to the excluded one or more electrical source connections during the termination of the electrical power to the subset of proximate electrical source connections.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, prior to receiving the environmental alert, the method further comprises configuring an emergency mapping table, the configuring further comprising:

generating a plurality of mapping entries for a plurality of environmental sensors, which includes the environmental sensor, included in the building structure wherein, for each of the plurality of environmental sensors, the generation further comprises;

identifying an emergency type of a selected one of the plurality of environmental sensors;

determining a proximate area corresponding to the selected environmental sensor based upon the identified emergency type;

identifying one or more of the plurality of electrical source connections located in the proximate area; and

generating the mapping entry in the emergency mapping table that maps the identified one or more electrical source connections to the selected environmental sensor; and

including the plurality of mapping entries in emergency mapping table.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the subset of proximate electrical source connections are selected from the group consisting of an electrical outlet, a lighting outlet, and a direct wire electrical device connection.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of zones corresponds to one of a plurality of rooms included in the building structure.

5. The method of claim 5 wherein the emergency electrical distribution system is coupled to an environmental sensor subsystem and an electrical distribution subsystem, the method further comprising:

matching the environmental alert invoked by the environmental sensor to one of the plurality of mapping entries;

identifying the one or more of the electrical source connections included in the matched mapping entry; and

sending a message to the electrical distribution subsystem to terminate the power to the identified one or more electrical source connections.

8. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory coupled to at least one of the processors;

a set of computer program instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the one or more processors in order to perform actions of;

receiving an environmental alert invoked by an environmental sensor located in a first one of a plurality of zones in a building structure;

selecting one or more electrical source connections in proximity to the first zone, the selection resulting in a subset of proximate electrical source connections that are a subset of a plurality of electrical source connections included in the building structure; and

terminating electrical power to the subset of proximate electrical source connections.

9. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein the subset of proximate electrical source connections is a proper subset of the plurality of electrical source connections that excludes one or more of the plurality of electrical source connections.

10. The information handling system of claim 9 wherein at least one of the one or more processors performs further actions of:

providing power to the excluded one or more electrical source connections during the termination of the electrical power to the subset of proximate electrical source connections.

11. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein, prior to receiving the environmental alert, the information handling system configures an emergency mapping table, and wherein at least one of the one or more processors performs further actions during the configuring of:

generating a plurality of mapping entries for a plurality of environmental sensors, which includes the environmental sensor, included in the building structure wherein, for each of the plurality of environmental sensors, the generation further comprises;

identifying an emergency type of a selected one of the plurality of environmental sensors;

determining a proximate area corresponding to the selected environmental sensor based upon the identified emergency type;

identifying one or more of the plurality of electrical source connections located in the proximate area; and

generating the mapping entry in the emergency mapping table that maps the identified one or more electrical source connections to the selected environmental sensor; and

including the plurality of mapping entries in emergency mapping table.

12. The information handling system of claim 11 wherein the information handling system is coupled to an environmental sensor subsystem and an electrical distribution subsystem, the method further comprising:

matching the environmental alert invoked by the environmental sensor to one of the plurality of mapping entries;

identifying the one or more of the electrical source connections included in the matched mapping entry; and

sending a message to the electrical distribution subsystem to terminate the power to the identified one or more electrical source connections.

13. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein each of the subset of proximate electrical source connections are selected from the group consisting of an electrical outlet, a lighting outlet, and a direct wire electrical device connection.

14. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein each of the plurality of zones corresponds to one of a plurality of rooms included in the building structure.

15. A computer program product stored in a computer readable storage medium, comprising computer program code that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions comprising:

receiving an environmental alert invoked by an environmental sensor located in a first one of a plurality of zones in a building structure;

selecting one or more electrical source connections in proximity to the first zone, the selection resulting in a subset of proximate electrical source connections that are a subset of a plurality of electrical source connections included in the building structure; and

terminating electrical power to the subset of proximate electrical source connections.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the subset of proximate electrical source connections is a proper subset of the plurality of electrical source connections that excludes one or more of the plurality of electrical source connections.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the information handling system performs further actions comprising:

providing power to the excluded one or more electrical source connections during the termination of the electrical power to the subset of proximate electrical source connections.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein, prior to receiving the environmental alert, the information handling system configures an emergency mapping table that comprises further actions of:

generating a plurality of mapping entries for a plurality of environmental sensors, which includes the environmental sensor, included in the building structure wherein, for each of the plurality of environmental sensors, the generation further comprises;

identifying an emergency type of a selected one of the plurality of environmental sensors;

determining a proximate area corresponding to the selected environmental sensor based upon the identified emergency type;

identifying one or more of the plurality of electrical source connections located in the proximate area; and

generating the mapping entry in the emergency mapping table that maps the identified one or more electrical source connections to the selected environmental sensor; and

including the plurality of mapping entries in emergency mapping table.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the information handling system is coupled to an environmental sensor subsystem and an electrical distribution subsystem, and wherein the information handling system performs further actions comprising:

matching the environmental alert invoked by the environmental sensor to one of the plurality of mapping entries;

identifying the one or more of the electrical source connections included in the matched mapping entry; and

sending a message to the electrical distribution subsystem to terminate the power to the identified one or more electrical source connections.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein each of the subset of proximate electrical source connections are selected from the group consisting of an electrical outlet, a lighting outlet, and a direct wire electrical device connection.