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

• Current Assignee: Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc. DBA GE Appliances (Haier Group Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Venkatakrishnan, Natarajan, Finch, Michael Francis, Bultman, Robert Marten, Worthington, Timothy Dale, Bingham, David C., Drake, Jeff Donald, Watts, William Anthony, Nolan, Kevin Farrelly, Emery, Cathy Diane, Kobraei, Henry
• Primary Examiner(s): Shechtman, Sean
• Assistant Examiner(s): GARLAND, STEVEN R
• Application Number:
  US12/983,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20110202190A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,814 Days
• Field of Search: 700/286, 700/291, 700/292, 700/295, 702/62, 709/219, 361/679.02, 307/39
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building

Abstract

A device configured in a unitary housing which includes a computing device with memory that stores energy information. A power supply and prongs attach to the power supply in the same unitary housing, wherein the prongs are configured to plug into a wall outlet.

Claims

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.

2. The device of claim 1 further including a reset button on an exterior of the housing to reset operation of the device.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the prongs are removable and may be interchanged with other prongs by at least one of a tool or without a tool.

4. The device of claim 1 further including an internal storage battery.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the prongs, the power supply and the computing device are provided in an operational connection to enable data communication with a remote server via the prongs.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the computing device is a single board computer.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the borne energy gateway is a single point communication device Which controls the communication flow of a home energy management system between the energy utility network and the home energy network.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the data communication interface comprises data communication interface channels configured to enable communication to and between the home energy gateway and a plurality of communication networks.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the data communication interface is configured to interface with two or more networks having different communication protocols, via the data communication interface channels.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the data communication interface is configured to communicate with a plurality of user interfaces.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein a volume of the device is less than approximately 160 cubic centimeters.

12. The device of claim 1 wherein a weight of the device is less than approximately 100 grams.

13. The device of claim 1 wherein the device is setup using zero configuration networking.

14. A home energy gateway device configured in a unitary housing for use in an energy management system that includes a plurality of communication networks, one of the communication networks being coupled to energy consuming appliances, the home energy gateway device comprising:

a plurality of interface channels corresponding to the plurality of communication networks, a first data interface channel for receiving remote configuration and data acquisition requests, a second data interface channel for communicating to and between an energy utility network and a third data interface channel for communicating to and between a 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 with a memory that stores energy information, identifies data from the energy consuming, appliances and exchanges energy data with the plurality of communication networks via the plurality of interface channels 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 serve as a single point of communication for communicating with the energy utility network on behalf of each registered energy consuming appliance;

a power supply within the housing to provide electrical power to the computing device; and

electrical prongs attached to the power supply in the unitary housing, the prongs configured to plug into a wall outlet.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein the prongs are removable and may be interchanged with other prongs by at least one of a tool or without a tool.

16. The device of claim 14 further including an internal storage battery.

17. The device of claim 14 wherein the prongs, the power supply and the computing device are provided in an operational connection to send data to a remote server over the prongs.

18. The device of claim 14 wherein the computing device is a single board computer.

19. The device of claim 14 wherein the device is configured as a home energy gateway for use in a home energy management environment, wherein the home energy gateway is a single point communication device which controls the communication flow of the home energy management system.

20. The device of claim 19 further including interface channels configured to enable communication between the home energy gateway and a plurality of communication networks.

21. The device of claim 14, wherein

the first data interface channel for communicating with external configuration devices is a Wi-Fi radio block;

the second data interface channel for communicating with the energy utility network is a Zigbee radio; and

the third data interface channel for communicating with the home energy network is a Zigbee radio.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein a data communication interface comprises an internal home area network data device coupled between the first data interface channel and the second and third data interface channels, the internal home area network device configured to identify data and information from the energy consuming appliances.