Interconnected premises equipment for energy management

• US 8,095,233 B1
• Filed: 10/10/2006
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Patton Electronics Company (Newell Brands Inc.)
• Original Assignee: American Grid, Inc.
• Inventors: Shankar, Chelakara P., Dusse, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta, Kidest
• Application Number:
  US11/548,222
• Time in Patent Office: 1,918 Days
• Field of Search: 700293-295, 700/22, 700/20, 700 12- 13, 700/19, 705/412, 702 61- 63, 702/188, 324/142
• US Class Current: 700/148
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 30/60 Planning or developing urban green infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving

Abstract

Energy commodities in the form of electricity and combustible fuel (e.g. natural gas, propane) are used by appliances within a residence or commercial premises in a fashion which is monitored and controlled through a Premises Energy Management System (PEMS). The system facilitates direct monitoring and control of energy-consuming appliances, in real time, utilizing automated programmatic control and a plurality of human interfaces including local display and control, email, web browser, text messaging, and integrated voice response (IVR). A Monitoring and Control Coordinator (MCC) provides centralized coordination of functions and one or more Communicating Appliance Interfaces (CAI) interact with energy consuming appliances are interconnected via wired and wireless communication networks and protocols. The system may retrieve information from third parties, such as from weather services, for optimizing energy usage. An interface may be provided to the energy provider/purveyor to enhance the provision of energy by providing additional real-time services such as demand management and service outage management.

Claims

1. A system for allowing a user to regulate energy consumption of a premises containing a heating and air conditioning system (HVAC);

said energy supplied by an energy provider;

said system containing;

a monitoring and control coordinator;

a premises control communication gateway;

a premises display system;

a power flow sensor, and a communicating appliance interface;

a. said monitoring and control coordinator in communication with the energy provider, and premises control communication gateway;

b. said premises control communication gateway in communication with the monitoring and control coordinator, the premises display, sensors, and communicating appliance interface;

c. said monitoring and control coordinator comprising;

i. a computer having a processor and data store;

ii. a user interface logic for formatting information for presentation to the user and soliciting information from the user;

iii. a premises equipment interface logic for providing instructions to and receiving information from the communicating appliance interface;

iv. energy provider logic for providing interaction between the monitoring and control coordinator and an applicable data interface at the energy provider; and

v. a connection to the power flow sensor;

said power flow sensor providing information to the monitoring and control coordinator for calculating an amount of energy being consumed at the premises and how much the energy costs;

d. said premises control communications gateway receiving monitoring and control data from the monitoring and control coordinator and distributing said monitoring and control data through a premises area network to communicating appliance interface;

e. said communication appliance interface containing;

i. an electrical outlet and a processor for distributing and controlling consumption of power to an electric consuming device;

ii. an electrical input for plugging into an electric power outlet;

iii. a local power converter for providing local system power to components of the communication appliance interface;

iv. a power flow sensor for measuring power delivered to the electric consuming device; and

v. a premises area network transceiver for providing communications between the communication appliance interfaces and other components.

2. The system of claim 1 comprising a network computer device comprises a web browser for allowing a user to input form requests and commands for transport to the monitoring and control coordinator for parsing and acting upon the form requests and commands.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said web browser provides a menu of choices for programming a desired temperature in the premises according to a calendar based schedule or in response to a change in energy pricing.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the data store contains heating and cooling profiles selectable through manipulation of controls implemented by the user interface logic.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said profiles contain programming information for automatically controlling functions of the heating and air conditioning system at the premises.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the automatic controlling functions change the desired temperature of the premises or energy use of the heating and air condition equipment based on at least one of the following conditions:

time of day, local weather conditions, cost of energy, open or closed status of doors or windows, and presence or absence of occupants.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said interface logic determines whether to store information from the appliance interface or generate a command to act in response to a system state determined from sensor data;

said information including a user'"'"'s energy use within the premises as measured by the communicating appliance interface.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said energy provider logic periodically solicits and receives information from the energy provider.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said information received from the energy provider includes at least one the following:

cost of energy, user'"'"'s current energy use, billing information, user'"'"'s past energy use and billing information, and status of energy supply and demand.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said information transmitted to the energy provider includes energy outage information for a particular premises, and energy usage per appliance at individual premises.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said monitoring and control coordinator contains circuitry for:

a. determining instantaneous energy being consumed;

b. extrapolating energy consumption expressed in units of power; and

c. extrapolating energy consumption expressed in units of currency based on pricing information provided by the energy provider.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said monitoring and control coordinator provides energy information from the energy provider to the user;

said energy information pertaining to;

a. past and present billable energy as measured by the energy provider;

b. cost of energy in the form of energy pricing to the user;

c. relationship information concerning the energy provider'"'"'s energy supply and energy demand; and

d. an estimate as to when demand is presently or is predicted to be at or near the energy provider'"'"'s capacity.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said premises control communications gateway comprises control logic and local data storage to provide monitoring and control of the communicating appliance interface in the event of an interruption in network communications with the monitoring and control coordinator.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said premises display system comprises a processor executing a graphic user interface and is coupled to a touch sensitive display for providing a user interface to the user.

15. The system of claim 1, comprising a set of sensors contain communication equipment for transmitting sensed data through the premises area network;

said sensor set containing;

a. a light sensor for determining sunlight present a particular time of day;

b. a temperature sensor to determine temperature in particular areas of the premises;

c. a power flow sensor for determining the amount of power being locally consumed;

d. occupancy sensors determining if occupants are present;

e. audio sensors for listening for particular audio events;

f. window and door sensors for determining whether a window or door is open or closed; and

g. proximity sensors for determining whether a particular mobile device or equipment is present in the premises.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication appliance interface contains sensors for measuring ambient light at the appliance interface.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the HVAC is the electric consuming device.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication appliance interface comprises a processor unit comprising at least one of discrete circuitry or a microprocessor for executing processor code stored on a storage device;

said processor unit implementing logic to;

a. interrupt and restore energy to a connected electrical consuming appliance;

b. monitor energy usage by the connected appliance;

c. process values obtained by sensor in the communication appliance interface;

d. forward values from the sensors to other components of the system;

e. receive and process instructions from a user using the system;

f. provide status indicators of the electric consuming appliance; and

g. execute functions to control the connected appliance in accordance with some logic which has been requested by the user or energy provider.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication appliance interface comprises user controls for controlling various operational aspects of the electric consuming device.