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Low cost and flexible energy management system defined in a single unitary housing

  • US 9,218,631 B2
  • Filed: 01/03/2011
  • Issued: 12/22/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A home energy gateway device configured in a unitary housing for single point control and communication between an energy utility network and a home energy network including energy consuming appliances, the home energy gateway device comprising:

  • a data communication interface within the housing comprising a first data interface channel for receiving remote configuration and data acquisition requests, a second data interface channel for communicating to and between the energy utility network and a third data interface channel for communicating to and between the home energy network, wherein the first, second and third data interface channels each have different physical, networking and application layers from each other and the first data interface channel operates at a higher bandwidth than the second and third data interface channels and with a communication protocol that is compatible with one or more home electronic devices;

    a computing device within the housing coupled to the data communication interface, the computing device comprising a memory that stores energy information and identifies data from the energy consuming appliances in the home energy network and a registry that registers the home energy gateway device with the energy utility network and each energy consuming appliance of the home energy network with the home energy gateway device, and wherein the home energy gateway device is configured to communicate with the energy utility network on behalf of each registered energy consuming appliance;

    a power supply within the housing to supply electrical power to the data communication interface and the computing device; and

    electrical prongs extending from the housing and attached to the power supply in the same housing, the electrical prongs configured to plug into a wall.

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