Communication of historical and real-time information about devices in a building

• US 9,172,623 B1
• Filed: 11/26/2014
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sense Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sense Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Micali, Christopher M., Houlette, Ryan T., Phillips, Michael S., Marcus, Jeffrey N., Rutledge, Charles H.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAW, PELING ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US14/554,935
• Time in Patent Office: 335 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00024 by means of mobile telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00026 involving a local wireless network, e.g. Wi-Fi, ZigBee or Bluetooth
• 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: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• 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 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/126 using wireless data transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

Electrical usage of devices in a building may be monitored to provide information about the operation of the devices to a user. The information communicated to a user may include historical information that is retrieved from a server and real-time information that is received from a power monitoring device. The historical information may be transmitted to the user device over a first network connection where the historical information is retrieved using an identifier received from the user device. The real-time information may be received from a power monitoring device and transmitted to the user device over a second network connection.

Claims

1. A method for providing information about a plurality of devices in a building, the method comprising:

accepting from a user device a first network connection;

receiving an identifier from the user device via the first network connection;

retrieving first information from a data store using the identifier, wherein the first information comprises historical information about a first device and a second device;

transmitting the first information to the user device via the first network connection;

accepting from the user device a second network connection;

receiving second information from a power monitoring device, wherein the second information comprises real-time information about power consumption of a third device at a first time and about power consumption of a fourth device at the first time; and

transmitting the second information to the user device via the second network connection.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using at least one of the first information and the second information to determine that a device needs maintenance or that a part of the device needs to be replaced;

transmit information to the user device indicating that the device needs maintenance or that the part of the device needs to be replaced.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using at least one of the first information and the second information to determine a recommendation for conserving energy;

transmitting the recommendation to the user device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein using at least one of the first information and the second information to determine a recommendation for conserving energy comprises using an expert system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network connection is between a first server computer and the user device and the second network connection is between a second server computer and the user device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises information about a state change of the first device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the second information to the user device comprises transmitting the information without significant delay from the first time.

8. A system for providing information about a plurality of devices, the system comprising:

at least one server computer comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the at least one server computer configured to;

accept from a first client device a first network connection;

receive an identifier from the first client device via the first network connection;

retrieve first information from a data store using the identifier, wherein the first information comprises historical information about a first device;

transmit the first information to the first client device via the first network connection;

receive second information from a second client device via a second network connection, wherein the second information comprises real-time information about power consumption of a second device at a first time;

accept from the first client device a third network connection; and

transmit the second information to the first client device via the third network connection.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server computer is further configured to:

use at least one of the first information and the second information to determine information about a comparison between power usage by a first building and by a second building or between the first building over a first time period and the first building over a second time period;

transmit the information about the comparison to the first client device.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server computer is further configured to:

use at least one of the first information and the second information to determine the occurrence of an event in a building comprising the plurality of devices;

transmit information about the event to a user.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one server computer is further configured to transmit the information about the event as a notification to a device of the user.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server computer comprises a first server computer and a second server computer, the first information is transmitted by the first sever computer, and the second information is transmitted by the second server computer.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein at least a portion of the first information was previously received from the second client device.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the second information is transmitted to the first client device without significant delay from the first time.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the second network connection is maintained when not in use.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform actions comprising:

establishing a first network connection using a network interface;

transmitting an identifier via the first network connection;

establishing a second network connection using the network interface;

receiving first information via the first network connection, wherein the first information comprises historical information about a first device; and

receiving second information via the second network connection, wherein second information comprises real-time information about power consumption of a second device at a first time.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processer to perform actions comprising presenting the first information and the second information to a user.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first network connection is with a first server computer and the second network connection is with a second server computer.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first information comprises information about a state change of the first device.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the second information is received without significant delay from the first time.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processer to perform actions comprising:

receiving a recommendation for conserving energy; and

presenting the recommendation to a user.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processer to perform actions comprising:

receiving third information via the first network connection, wherein the third information comprises historical information about the second device; and

receiving fourth information via the second network connection, wherein fourth information comprises real-time information about power consumption of the first device at the first time.