Home appliance that can operate in a time range

• US 8,538,595 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2011
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Peak Reduction LLC
• Original Assignee: Philip Scott Lyren
• Inventors: Lyren, Philip Scott, Lyren, William James, Lyren, William Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta, Kidest
• Application Number:
  US13/274,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20130096726A1
• Time in Patent Office: 703 Days
• Field of Search: 700/292, 700/291, 700/295, 700/286, 702/62, 725/141, 340/538, 307/40
• US Class Current: 700/292
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/026 using a predictor
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/66 Regulating electric power
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/14 The load or loads being home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/00 Management or operation of end-user stationary applications or the last stages of power distribution; Controlling, monitoring or operating thereof
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/244 the home appliances being or involving heating ventilating and air conditioning [HVAC] units

Abstract

A home appliance can operate in a future time frame. Information is obtained from a power distributor in order to determine a time when to operate the home appliance in this future time frame. The home appliance then operates at the time determined with information from the power distributor.

Claims

1. A home appliance, comprising:

a memory storing instructions; and

a processing unit that executes the instructions to store operating information over a time period, analyze the operating information to determine a future time frame when the home appliance can operate, communicate the future time frame to a power distributor that provides electrical power to the home appliance, receive from the power distributor a time to operate the home appliance during the future time frame, and operate the home appliance at the time received from the power distributor and with the electrical power received from the power distributor,

wherein the power distributor determines the time that the home appliance will turn on to operate during the future time frame and transmits the time to a residential customer that has the home appliance such that the power distributor knows in advance the time that the home appliance will operate and an amount of power that the home appliance will consume during the future time frame,

wherein the power distributor is one of a city, a village, a town, a municipality, a political subdivision of a state, and an electric utility company that sells electricity to residential and commercial customers including the residential customer that has the home appliance.

2. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the processing unit further executes the instructions to communicate to the power distributor a requested amount of kilowatt hours to be used during the future time frame.

3. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the future time frame specifies a calendar date and a range of time that has not yet occurred and is given in hours on this calendar date during which the home appliance can operate.

4. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the processing unit further executes the instructions to negotiate directly with the power distributor for a price to buy the electrical power to operate the home appliance during the future time frame.

5. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the processing unit further executes the instructions to calculate a probability that home appliance will operate during the future time frame.

6. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the processing unit further executes the instructions to:

receive a request from a customer to operate, and

analyze the operating information to determine that the home appliance can operate at anytime during the future time frame in order to comply with the request.

7. A method executed by an electrical device of a customer, comprising:

receiving, at the electrical device of the customer, requests for power from a plurality of different home appliances of the customer;

transmitting, by the electrical device of the customer and to a power distributor, the requests for power that include a future time range when the plurality of different home appliances can turn on and operate;

receiving, at the electrical device of the customer and from the power distributor, times during the future time ranges when the plurality of different home appliances of the customer can turn on and begin to utilize the requests for power; and

instructing, by the electrical device of the customer, the plurality of different home appliances of the customer to turn and operate at the times received from the power distributor, wherein the power distributor schedules when in time the plurality of different home appliances turn on during the future time ranges and is a city, a village, a town, a municipality, a political subdivision of a state, or an electric utility company that sells electricity to the customer and to other customers.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

consolidating, by the electrical device of the customer, the requests for power;

transmitting, by the electrical device of the customer, the consolidated requests for power to the power distributor.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the requests for power from the plurality of different home appliances include an amount of power being requested and a length of time to use the amount of power being requested.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the future time ranges include multiple different times of day that provide a time when each of the plurality of different home appliances of the customer will turn on.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising, negotiating, by the electrical device of the customer and on behalf of the plurality of different home appliances, with the power distributor to determine a time when the plurality of different home appliances can turn on to receive a lowest cost for electricity that is being sold by the power distributor during the future time ranges.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising, requesting, by the electrical device of the customer, price quotes for the power from a plurality of different power distributors, wherein the price quotes are for a sale of the power during the future time ranges.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions for causing a computer system of a power distributor to execute a method, comprising:

receive, at the computer system of the power distributor and from different residential customers, requests that include amounts of power and time ranges at a future time during which the amounts of power can be used to operate home appliances of the different residential customers;

analyze, by the computer system of the power distributor, the amounts of power and the time ranges to determine times during the time ranges when the different residential customers can operate the home appliances and use the amounts of power being requested; and

transmit, from the computer system of the power distributor and to the different residential customers, the times during the time ranges when the different residential customers can operate the home appliances so the different residential customers use the amounts of powers at the times provided by the computer system of the power distributor,

wherein the power distributor is one of a city, a village, a town, a municipality, a political subdivision of a state, and an electric utility company that sells electricity to the different residential customers.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions of claim 13 further causing the computer system of the power distributor to execute the method comprising, analyze, by the computer system of the power distributor, the amounts of power and the time ranges in order to more evenly distribute electrical load of the different residential customers during the time ranges.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions of claim 13 further causing the computer system of the power distributor to execute the method comprising:

instruct, by the computer system of the power distributor, the different residential customers when in time to turn on the home appliances and commence operation of the home appliances to use the amounts of power being requested.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions of claim 13 further causing the computer system of the power distributor to execute the method comprising, charge the different residential customers a lower rate for electricity when the different residential customers operate the home appliances at the times designated by the computer system of power distributor.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions of claim 13 further causing the computer system of the power distributor to execute the method comprising, provide the amounts of power and the time ranges to a second power distributor in order to obtain competing costs of electricity to operate the home appliances during the time ranges.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions of claim 13, wherein the time ranges include a calendar date and a range of time on the calendar date during which the amounts of power being requested can be used.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions of claim 13 further causing the computer system of the power distributor to execute the method comprising, instruct a user that execution of a function of a home appliance will be delayed while the home appliance negotiates with the power distributor to obtain a lower price for power to operate the home appliance.

20. A system, comprising:

a plurality of home appliances of a residential customer;

a power distributor that supplies electrical power to the home appliances and is one of a city, a village, a town, a municipality, a political subdivision of a state, and an electric utility company that sells the electrical power to the residential customer with the home appliances; and

a load manager including a memory that stores instructions and a processing unit that executes the instructions to determine a future time range during which each of the home appliances can operate, communicate with the power distributor in order to request an amount of power and a start time during the future time range when to begin operating the home appliances during the future time range, receive from the power distributor the start time that instructs when to begin operating the home appliances during the future time range, and instruct the home appliances to begin to operate at the start time that was received from the power distributor.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the home appliances include an automobile recharging unit configured to charge an automobile.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the processing unit of the load manager further executes the instructions to designate the home appliances as variable time based load devices (VTLDs) and provide the residential customer of the VTLDs cost savings information on purchasing electricity to assist the residential customer in making a decision whether to accept or reject the electrical devices being designated as VTLDs.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the processing unit of the load manager further executes the instructions to obtain from the power distributor a rate schedule that provides different prices for electricity during different times of day, and determine the future time range during which each of the home appliances can operate based on the rate schedule.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the processing unit of the load manager further executes the instructions to receive from the residential customer a time to operate the home appliances, change the time received from the residential customer due to the lowest cost to purchase power during the future time range, and instruct the residential customer of the change to the time before the home appliances begin to operate.

25. A method executed by a load manager having a processing unit, comprising:

obtaining, by the load manager of a residential customer, a future time range during which a home appliance of the residential customer desires to operate;

providing, by the load manager, a power distributor with the future time range that the home appliance desires to operate and with an amount of power to be consumed by the home appliance during the future time range;

receiving, by the load manager and from the power distributor, a time to turn on and operate the home appliance during the future time range such that the power distributor determines when during the future time range that the home appliance will turn on and use the amount of power; and

instructing, by the load manager, the home appliance to turn on and operate at the time received from the power distributor, wherein the power distributor is one of a city, a village, a town, a municipality, a political subdivision of a state, and an electric utility company that sells electricity to residential customers including the residential customer.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the power distributor knows in advance the amount of power that the home appliance will consume during the future time range since the power distributor received the amount of power from the residential customer, and the power distributor knows in advance what time the home appliance will turn on and use the amount of power since the power distributor instructed the residential customer the time to turn on and use the home appliance.

28. The method of claim 25 further comprising, instructing, by the load manager, the residential customer of a cost savings in purchasing electricity from the power distributor to operate the home appliance during the future time range, wherein the cost savings is provided to the residential customer before the home appliance operates.

29. The method of claim 25 further comprising, receiving, at the load manager and from the power distributor, different costs for electricity to operate the home appliance during the future time range.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the power distributor selects a time for the home appliance to operate in order to more evenly distribute electrical load of the different residential customers during the future time range.

27. The method of 25 further comprising:

predicting the future time range based on an analysis of historic operating information of the home appliance;

instructing the residential customer of the future time range before the home appliance operates during the future time range.