SMART METHANE MONITOR
First Claim
1. A natural gas distribution system comprisinggas utility apparatus of a gas utility company which supplies natural gas to a plurality of consumer locations via a natural gas distribution system, said apparatus including a service computer system (80) which is connected to a communications network,a plurality of methane detectors (30) disposed so that each of said plurality of consumer locations has at least one of said plurality of methane detectors, each of said plurality of methane detectors having a low-power, low-bandwidth radio transceiver, an infrared light source (231), an infrared light detector (233) disposed so as to receive light from said infrared light source, and a sampling chamber (232) disposed between said infrared light source and said infrared Sight detector,smart energy communication networks (10) that link each of said plurality of methane detectors (30) with said communications network for communication with said service computer system (80) of said gas utility company,said smart energy communication networks (10) each including a network coordinator (20) in communication with said internet (70) for communication with said service computer system (SO) of said gas utility company,said plurality of network coordinators (20) placed at one of said consumer locations so that each of said plurality of methane detectors (30) is in wireless communication with at least one of said plurality of network coordinator (20),circuitry disposed in each of said methane detectors (30) which is arranged and designed to notify said service computer system (80) of said gas utility company of high methane gas conditions via said smart energy communication network (10), anda display device (31) disposed in one of said consumer locations, said device (31) being in wireless communication with one of said plurality of network coordinators (20) via said smart energy wireless network (11), said display device designed for displaying said methane gas conditions detected by said at least one of said plurality of methane detectors.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for the detection of methane gas including a low-cost low-power infrared methane sensor integrated with a smart energy network endpoint node, a volume corrector, or an electronic data recorder for transmission of alarm conditions and detector data between the instrument and a remote gas utility company. An independent gas calibration/verification cell may be included in the methane detector for periodically testing the functioning and calibration of the infrared sensor. An infrared carbon monoxide sensor aid associated calibration/verification cell may also be installed with the methane sensor.
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Citations
1 Claim
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1. A natural gas distribution system comprising
gas utility apparatus of a gas utility company which supplies natural gas to a plurality of consumer locations via a natural gas distribution system, said apparatus including a service computer system (80) which is connected to a communications network, a plurality of methane detectors (30) disposed so that each of said plurality of consumer locations has at least one of said plurality of methane detectors, each of said plurality of methane detectors having a low-power, low-bandwidth radio transceiver, an infrared light source (231), an infrared light detector (233) disposed so as to receive light from said infrared light source, and a sampling chamber (232) disposed between said infrared light source and said infrared Sight detector, smart energy communication networks (10) that link each of said plurality of methane detectors (30) with said communications network for communication with said service computer system (80) of said gas utility company, said smart energy communication networks (10) each including a network coordinator (20) in communication with said internet (70) for communication with said service computer system (SO) of said gas utility company, said plurality of network coordinators (20) placed at one of said consumer locations so that each of said plurality of methane detectors (30) is in wireless communication with at least one of said plurality of network coordinator (20), circuitry disposed in each of said methane detectors (30) which is arranged and designed to notify said service computer system (80) of said gas utility company of high methane gas conditions via said smart energy communication network (10), and a display device (31) disposed in one of said consumer locations, said device (31) being in wireless communication with one of said plurality of network coordinators (20) via said smart energy wireless network (11), said display device designed for displaying said methane gas conditions detected by said at least one of said plurality of methane detectors.
Specification