Energy audit device

• US 9,958,360 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2015
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Dasgupta, Arjun, Preston, Brian, Philipsen, Niklas, Davidson, Euan, Culp, Jared, Greenfield, Matt
• Primary Examiner(s): Han, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US14/819,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20170038279A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,000 Days
• Field of Search: 700291, 700295, 700297, 700278, 700277, 705412, 702 62, 702130, 702136
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• 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: Y02P 90/82 Energy audits or management systems therefor

Abstract

Aspects of the subject technology relate to an energy audit device configured for identifying one or more sources of thermal energy loss. In some implementation, the audit device includes one or more processors, a memory coupled to the processors, a location module coupled to the processors, and one or more environmental sensors. In practice, the processors can be configured to perform various operations including: receiving a first set of environmental measurements, receiving a second set of environmental measurements, and identifying one or more thermal energy leaks at a building location based on the first and second sets of environmental measurements.

Claims

1. An energy audit device configured for identifying one or more sources of thermal energy loss, the energy audit device comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory coupled to the processors;

a location module coupled to the processors; and

one or more environmental sensors located in a building and configured to communicate to the processors by electronic communications, and

wherein the processors are configured to execute operations in response to executing instructions stored in the memory, the operations comprising;

receiving, via the one or more environmental sensors, a first set of environmental measurements from a first room in the building;

receiving, via the one or more environmental sensors, a second set of environmental measurements from the first room in the building;

identifying one or more thermal energy leaks in the first room of the building based on comparing the first set of environmental measurements and the second set of environmental measurements;

in response to the first set of environmental measurements being different from the second set of environmental measurements by a variance over a threshold;

identifying a type of energy leak as a leak caused by an insulation issue;

generating a notification message that identifies the first room and the insulation issue with an actionable step to reduce the insulation issue; and

transmitting, via a network, the notification message to a remote device associated with the building to cause the actionable step to be performed.

2. The energy audit device of claim 1, further comprising:

a notification module coupled the processors, and

wherein the processors are further configured to execute operations comprising;

providing, via the notification module, a message to a user of the energy audit device, wherein the message comprises information regarding the actionable step comprising one or more steps that the user can perform to improve thermal efficiency at the building location.

3. The energy audit device of claim 2, wherein the message to the user provides information regarding one or more thermal energy leaks at the building location due to a draft or insufficient insulation.

4. The energy audit device of claim 1, further comprising:

an input module coupled to the processors, and

wherein the processors are further configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving, via the input module, user input provided by a user in response to one or more prompts, and

wherein identifying the one or more thermal energy leaks at the building location is further based on the user input.

5. The energy audit device of claim 1, wherein the one or more environmental sensors comprises one or more of:

a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, or a global positioning system (GPS) device.

6. The energy audit device of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication module coupled to the processors, wherein the communication module comprises one or more of;

a Bluetooth device, a WiFi transceiver, or a smart phone interface.

7. The energy audit device of claim 1, wherein the location module is configured to determine a geographic location of the energy audit device.

8. The energy audit device of claim 1, wherein the location module is configured to identify a relative position within the building location.

9. A computer-implemented method performed by a computing device including at least a processor, the method comprising:

receiving, by the processor, a first environmental reading measured by one or more of a plurality of environmental sensors from a first location in a first room wherein the first environmental reading includes a first temperature measurement;

receiving, by the processor, a second environmental reading measured by one or more of the plurality of environmental sensors from a second location in the first room wherein the second environmental reading includes a second temperature measurement;

analyzing, by the processor, the first environmental reading and the second environmental reading to identify one or more thermal energy leaks in the first room;

in response to the processor determining that the first environmental reading is different from the second environmental reading by a variance over a threshold;

identifying, by the processor, a type of energy leak as a leak being caused by an insulation issue;

generating, by the processor, a notification message that identifies the first room and the insulation issue with an actionable step to reduce the insulation issue; and

transmitting, by the processor via a network, the notification message to a remote device associated with the building to cause the actionable step to be performed.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein both the first location and the second location reside within the same room in the building.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

generating a notification alert, wherein the notification alert comprises information identifying one or more actions that can be taken to eliminate or reduce the one or more thermal energy leaks in the building; and

providing the notification alert to a user.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the one or more actions comprise steps for eliminating or reducing a draft.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the one or more actions comprise steps for improving or fixing an insulation barrier.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending information regarding the type of energy leak to a remote server via a communication network; and

receiving, from the remote server, a notification alert, wherein the notification alert comprises information identifying one or more actions that can be taken to eliminate or reduce the type of energy leak in the building.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting, via a host interface, information regarding the type of energy leak to a host device; and

receiving, via the host interface, a notification alert, wherein the notification alert comprises information identifying one or more actions that can be taken to eliminate or reduce the type of energy leak in the building.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first environmental reading further comprises a first humidity measurement, and

wherein the second environmental reading further comprises a second humidity measurement.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to:

read, via one or more environmental sensors mounted in a building, a first set of environmental measurements from a first location in a first room in the building;

read, via the one or more environmental sensors, a second set of environmental measurements from a second location in the first room;

identify one or more thermal energy leaks in the first room of the building based on comparing the first set of environmental measurements and the second set of environmental measurements, comprising;

based on the comparison, in response to the first set of environmental measurements being different from the second set of environmental measurements by a variance over a threshold;

identify, by the processor, a type of energy leak as a leak caused by an insulation issue;

generate, by the processor, a notification message that identifies the first room and the insulation issue with an actionable step to reduce the insulation issue; and

transmit, by the processor via a network, the notification message to a remote device associated with the building to cause the actionable step to be performed.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, the instructions further comprising instructions for causing the processor to:

transmit a message to a user associated with an energy audit device, wherein the message comprises at least a portion of the notification message.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, the instructions further comprising instructions for causing the processor to:

providing transmit a message to a user associated with an energy audit device, wherein the message comprises information regarding one or more steps that the user can perform to improve thermal efficiency at the building associated with the first location and the second location.