Apparatus for controlling consumption by a household appliance
First Claim
1. Apparatus for controlling consumption of energy and/or resources of a household appliance, comprisingan electronic microcontroller (LC), non-volatile memory means (M) operatively connected to the microcontroller (LC), the household appliance being connected during use to at least one source of an external resource (water, electric energy, gas, etc.), the external resource being necessary to the apparatus for carrying out an operating cycle, the household appliance also comprising setting means for the manual selection of one or more operating parameters, and signaling means (1), characterized in that within the memory means (M) information are coded which the control system (LC), as a function of at least a selection operated through the setting means, uses to calculate the consumption of the external resource required by the household appliance to execute an operating cycle, the signaling means (1) comprising means for displaying the level of consumption of the external resource.
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Abstract
A system for controlling the consumption of a household appliance, comprising an electronic microcontroller and non-volatile memory device associated with the microcontroller, the household appliance being connected during use with at least one source of an external resource (water, electric energy, gas, etc.), the external resource being required by the apparatus for carrying out an operating cycle, where the apparatus also comprises a setting device for the manual selection of one or more operating parameters, and signaling device. Coded information are contained within a memory, which are used by the control system as a function of at least one selection actuated through the setting device, for calculating the consumption of the external resource required by the household appliance to execute an operating cycle, the signaling means being capable, if required, to show the consumption level of the external resource.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. Apparatus for controlling consumption of energy and/or resources of a household appliance, comprising
an electronic microcontroller (LC), non-volatile memory means (M) operatively connected to the microcontroller (LC), the household appliance being connected during use to at least one source of an external resource (water, electric energy, gas, etc.), the external resource being necessary to the apparatus for carrying out an operating cycle, the household appliance also comprising setting means for the manual selection of one or more operating parameters, and signaling means (1), characterized in that within the memory means (M) information are coded which the control system (LC), as a function of at least a selection operated through the setting means, uses to calculate the consumption of the external resource required by the household appliance to execute an operating cycle, the signaling means (1) comprising means for displaying the level of consumption of the external resource.
- 20. A method of controlling the energy and/or resource consumption of a household appliance of the type having a control system with an electronic microcontroller (LC), the household appliance being operatively connected to at least a source of an external resource (water, electric energy, gas, etc.), necessary for the execution of an operating cycle of the household appliance, the household appliance also comprising setting means for manual selection of one or more operating parameters, and signaling means (1), wherein, as a function of the setting of at least one operating parameter of the appliance done by an user, the control system (LC) controls the signaling means (1) for showing a consumption level of the external resource required by the household appliance to execute an operating cycle for instructing the user on the correct setting of the operating parameters to minimize the consumption of the external resource.
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27. A method of controlling the electric energy consumption of a household appliance of the type comprising a control system with an electronic microcontroller (LC), including estimation of the total consumption of electric energy that will be reached during an operating cycle of the apparatus, the total consumption value being obtained by the calculation of the partial consumption of electric energy by each individual electric and/or electronic component of the household appliance, the partial consumptions being derived by multiplying the electric energy absorbed by each component for the time it will be activated during the operating cycle selected by the user, the total consumption of electric energy being obtained by summing up the partial consumptions.
Specification