Power consumption management apparatus and method
First Claim
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1. A power consumption management apparatus comprising:
- plug means for connecting said apparatus to a receptacle in a house;
power consumption managing means for supplying power to be supplied through said plug means to electric equipment connected to said apparatus, and for measuring and storing an integrated amount of power consumed by the electric equipment; and
communicating means for reporting the integrated amount of power consumption stored in said power consumption managing means to another location via a communication line.
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Abstract
The invention intends to provide an apparatus and a method capable of measuring power consumption in a home office and informing an integrated value of the power consumption at certain intervals to an employer of a homeworker, etc. The apparatus supplies power to electric equipment connected to the apparatus, measures an amount of power consumed by the electric equipment, and stores it as an integrated amount of power consumption. The apparatus then reports the integrated amount of power consumption at certain intervals to an outside company or organization registered in advance.
44 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A power consumption management apparatus comprising:
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plug means for connecting said apparatus to a receptacle in a house;
power consumption managing means for supplying power to be supplied through said plug means to electric equipment connected to said apparatus, and for measuring and storing an integrated amount of power consumed by the electric equipment; and
communicating means for reporting the integrated amount of power consumption stored in said power consumption managing means to another location via a communication line. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A power consumption management method comprising the steps of:
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storing, prior to said receiving step, in a management computer, a correspondence between identification information of a plurality of power consumption management apparatuses each having a selection switch for selecting one of a first state and a second state and a plurality of user names associated with each of the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses;
receiving integrated amounts of power consumption and corresponding identification information both transmitted from the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses, acquiring the user names that correspond to the identification information received in said receiving step by referring to the correspondence stored in the management computer in said storing step; and
combining the user names acquired in said user name acquiring step with the integrated amounts of power consumption which are received in said receiving step and correspond to the user names, wherein, in said receiving step, information transmitted from each of the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses is received only when the selection switch of each of the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses is switched to either the first state or the second state. - View Dependent Claims (9)
deriving electrical charges based on the integrated amounts of power consumption received in said receiving step by referring to a correlation between integrated amounts of power consumption and electrical charges, the correlation being registered prior to said receiving step, and combining the electrical charges derived in said electrical charge deriving step with the user names acquired in said user name acquiring step.
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10. A storage medium storing a program readable by a computer to execute:
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storing, prior to said receiving step, in a management computer, a correspondence between identification information of a plurality of power consumption management apparatuses each having a selection switch for selecting one of a first state and a second state and a plurality of user names associated with each of the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses;
receiving integrated amounts of power consumption and corresponding identification information both transmitted from the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses, acquiring the user names that correspond to the identification information received in said receiving step by referring to the correspondence stored in the management computer in said storing step; and
combining the user names acquired in said user name acquiring step with the integrated amounts of power consumption which are received in said receiving step and correspond to the user names, wherein, in said receiving step, information transmitted from each of the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses is received only when the selection switch of each of the plurality of power consumption management apparatuses is switched to either the first state or the second state. - View Dependent Claims (11)
an electrical charge deriving step for deriving electrical charges based on the integrated amounts of power consumption received in said receiving step by referring to a correlation between integrated amounts of power consumption and electrical charges, the correlation being registered prior to said receiving step, and a second combining step for combining the electrical charges derived in said electrical charge deriving step with the user names acquired in said user names acquiring step.
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12. A power consumption management apparatus comprising:
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power consumption managing means for supplying power to electric equipment connected to said apparatus, and measuring and storing an integrated amount of power consumed by the electric equipment; and
communicating means for reporting the integrated amount of power consumption stored in said power consumption managing means to another location via a communication line, wherein said power consumption managing means includes instructing means for instructing whether or not to measure and store the integrated amount of power consumed by the electric equipment connected to said apparatus. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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Specification