Home energy management system

• US 9,411,323 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2013
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ISB Data Solutions LLC
• Original Assignee: Tekpea, Inc.
• Inventors: Tappeiner, Davide
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ramesh
• Application Number:
  US13/864,638
• Publication Number:
  US 20130282196A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,210 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 11/01 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25168 Domotique, access through internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2836 Protocol conversion between an external network and a home network controlling appliance services of a home automation network from a device located outside the home and the home network H04L12/2818; protocol conversion H04L69/08; adaptation of digital video signals for transport over a specific home network H04N7/24
• 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

Abstract

A home energy management system includes a protocol conversion device configured to provide bi-directional communication between a networking device and one or more energy meters, wherein the protocol conversion device connects to the networking device via a transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) and connects to one or more energy meters via one or more communication protocols supported by one or more energy meters. The home energy management system further includes the networking device, connected to the protocol conversion device via the TCP/IP connection, configured to receive, from the protocol conversion device, data packets generated by the one or more energy meters, and transmit the data packets to a remote server.

Claims

1. A home energy management system comprising:

a protocol conversion device configured to;

provide bi-directional communication between a networking device and one or more energy meters, wherein the protocol conversion device connects to the networking device via a transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) connection and connects to the one or more energy meters via one or more communication protocols supported by the one or more energy meters;

receive a data packet from a first energy meter;

identify a protocol ID associated with the data packet that identifies a first communication protocol for the data packet that is supported by the first energy meter;

convert the data packet, based on the protocol ID, from the first communication protocol to a second communication protocol for transmission over the TCP/IP connection; and

the networking device, connected to the protocol conversion device via the TCP/IP connection, configured to;

receive, from the protocol conversion device, the data packet; and

transmit the data packet to a remote server.

2. The home energy management system of claim 1, wherein the networking device is at least one of a cable modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a DSL router, a network switch, a WiFi router or a wireless access point, and wherein the networking device comprises an energy management module configured to receive the data packet, generate one or more messages containing a payload of the data packet and transmit the one or more messages.

3. The home energy management system of claim 1, wherein the one or more energy meters store one or more first sets of data packets and the protocol conversion device stores a second set of the data packets.

4. The home energy management system of claim 1, wherein the networking device is further configured to:

send control instructions to the protocol conversion device for transmission to the one or more energy meters, wherein the control instructions cause the one or more energy meters to power on or power off one or more appliances coupled to the one or more energy meters.

5. The home energy management system of claim 4, wherein the networking device is further configured to:

output a graphical user interface to a computing device on a local area network, wherein the graphical user interface identifies the one or more appliances, provides energy usage statistics and enables a user of the computing device to issue the control instructions.

6. The home energy management system of claim 5, wherein the networking device is further configured to:

receive power usage pricing data from the remote server;

determine costs associated with power usage of the one or more appliances; and

output the costs via the graphical user interface.

7. The home energy management system of claim 1, wherein the networking device is further configured to:

receive data packets on a periodic basis;

aggregate payloads of a plurality of data packets into a data packet message; and

send the data packet message to the remote server.

8. The home energy management system of claim 1, wherein the protocol conversion device connects to the one or more energy meters using at least one of a power line communication (PLC) protocol, a Zigbee protocol, an IPv6 over low power wireless personal area networks (6LoWPAN) protocol, or a radio frequency (RF) protocol.

9. A networking device comprising:

a memory; and

a processing device, coupled to the memory, configured to;

provide bi-directional communication between one or more first devices on a wide area network (WAN) and one or more second devices on a local area network (LAN);

receive a data packet from a protocol conversion device of the one or more second devices via the LAN, wherein the data packet comprises energy usage data generated by one or more energy meters connected to the protocol conversion device via a first communication protocol unsupported by the networking device, wherein the data packet was converted by the protocol conversion device, based on a protocol ID, from the first communication protocol to a second communication protocol that is supported by the networking device for transmission over the WAN; and

transmit payloads of data packets to a server computing device of the one or more first devices, wherein the server computing device generates usage statistics based on the payloads.

10. The networking device of claim 9, wherein the networking device is at least one of a cable modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a DSL router, a network switch, a WiFi router or a wireless access point, and wherein the networking device comprises an energy management module configured to receive the data packets, generate a message from the payloads of the data packets, and transmit the message.

11. The networking device of claim 9, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

send control instructions to the protocol conversion device for transmission to the one or more energy meters, wherein the control instructions cause the one or more energy meters to power on or power off one or more appliances coupled to the one or more energy meters.

12. The networking device of claim 11, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

output a graphical user interface to a computing device of the one or more second devices, wherein the graphical user interface identifies the one or more appliances, provides energy usage statistics and enables a user of the computing device to issue the control instructions.

13. The networking device of claim 12, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

receive power usage pricing data from a remote server;

determine costs associated with power usage of the one or more appliances; and

provide the costs via the graphical user interface.

14. The networking device of claim 9, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

receive the data packets on a periodic basis;

aggregate the payloads of the data packets into one or more household energy consumption messages; and

send the one or more household energy consumption messages a remote server.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions that, when executed by a processing device of a network device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

providing bi-directional communication between one or more first devices on a wide area network (WAN) and one or more second devices on a local area network (LAN);

receiving a data packet from a protocol conversion device of the one or more second devices via the LAN, wherein the data packet comprises energy usage data generated by one or more energy meters connected to the protocol conversion device via a first communication protocol unsupported by the networking device, wherein the data packet was converted by the protocol conversion device, based on a protocol ID, from the first communication protocol to a second communication protocol that is supported by the networking device for transmission over the WAN; and

transmitting payloads of data packets to a server computing device of the one or more first devices, wherein the server computing device generates usage statistics based on the payloads.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the networking device is at least one of a cable modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a DSL router, a network switch, a WiFi router or a wireless access point, and wherein the networking device comprises an energy management module configured to receive the data packets, generate a message comprising the payloads and transmit the message.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending control instructions to the protocol conversion device for transmission to the one or more energy meters, wherein the control instructions cause the one or more energy meters to power on or power off one or more appliances coupled to the one or more energy meters.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

outputting a graphical user interface to a computing device on the local area network, wherein the graphical user interface identifies the one or more appliances, provides energy usage statistics and enables a user of the computing device to issue the control instructions.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving power usage pricing data from the remote server;

determining costs associated with power usage of the one or more appliances; and

providing the costs via the graphical user interface.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving the data packets on a periodic basis;

aggregating the data packets into a household energy consumption message; and

sending the household energy consumption message to the remote server.

21. A protocol conversion device, comprising:

a first network communication interface configured to connect, via a transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) connection, to a networking device having an energy management module;

a second network communication interface configured to connect to one or more energy meters via one or more additional connections comprising one or more protocols not supported by the networking device; and

a processing device configured to;

receive data packets from the one or more energy meters via the one or more additional connections;

identify a protocol ID associated with a first data packet that identifies a first communication protocol for the first data packet that is not supported by the networking device;

convert the first data packet, based on the protocol ID, from the first communication protocol to a second communication protocol that is supported by the networking device; and

transmit the data packets to the networking device via the TCP/IP connection, wherein the networking device is configured to generate a household energy consumption message comprising aggregated payloads of the data packets and sends the household energy consumption message to a remote server.