Method and system to provide feedback for energy saving to a user of a property comprising a plurality of appliances

• US 10,083,491 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2012
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Centrica Hive Limited (Centrica PLC)
• Original Assignee: Centrica Hive Limited (Centrica PLC)
• Inventors: Hamouz, Miroslav, Coppin, Benjamin Kenneth, Barr, Graham, Chapman, Colin, Hargreaves, Jack Elliot, Palmer, Daniel James
• Primary Examiner(s): Masinick, Michael D
• Application Number:
  US14/127,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20140244057A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,294 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/008 involving trading of energy or energy transmission rights
• 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: Y02E 40/70 Smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the energy generation sector
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

A system to provide feedback for energy saving to a user of a property comprising a plurality of appliances, the system comprising: at least one sensor monitoring energy consumption of one or more appliances within the property; a user interface to provide feedback to the user; and a processor configured to receive input data from an energy bill for the property covering a predetermined period; receive input regional average statistics regarding energy consumption for a set of predetermined categories of energy usage; generate a model of energy usage within a plurality of categories over the predetermined period by combining the input data, energy consumption data from the at least one sensor and generic statistics regarding energy consumption and output, via the user interface, feedback to the user based on the generated model.

Claims

1. A system to provide feedback for energy saving to a user of a property comprising a plurality of appliances, the system comprising:

at least one sensor monitoring energy consumption of at least one appliance within said property, resulting in energy consumption data for the at least one appliance;

a user interface to provide feedback for energy saving to said user; and

a processor configured to;

receive input bill data from an energy bill for said property for a predetermined time period, wherein the input bill data includes an energy consumption value indicating energy used for the predetermined time period;

receive input regional average statistics specifying a respective average energy consumption value for each of a set of predetermined categories of energy usage; and

generate a model of energy usage for said set of predetermined categories over said predetermined time period by combining said input bill data, energy consumption data from said at least one sensor and said regional average statistics,

wherein said processor is configured to generate said model by;

multiplying the respective average energy consumption value for each of the predetermined categories by a respective first weighting associated with the predetermined time period to determine a plurality of first energy consumption values, wherein said plurality of first energy consumption values includes a respective first energy consumption value for each predetermined category;

determining a respective second weighting for each predetermined category based on said plurality of first energy consumption values; and

multiplying said respective second weighting for each predetermined category by said energy consumption value from the input bill data to provide a respective second energy consumption value for each predetermined category;

the processor further configured to output, via said user interface, data based on said generated model.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein said respective first weighting takes into account an element selected from a group consisting of a location of the property and a time of year of the predetermined time period.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein said energy bill covers electricity usage.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein each category of said set of predetermined categories is selected from a group consisting of lighting, cooking and appliances.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein said energy bill covers gas usage.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein each category of said set of predetermined categories is selected from a group consisting of space heating, water heating and cooking.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to receive input energy type data indicating which type of energy is used by each predetermined category, and wherein said processor is further configured to generate said model of energy usage by combining said input energy type data with said input bill data and said regional average statistics.

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein said processor is configured to receive input energy type data indicating that a primary and a secondary energy type is used by a particular predetermined category, and wherein said processor is further configured to generate a model of energy usage for said particular predetermined category which distributes energy usage between said primary and a secondary energy type.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to receive input appliance data detailing the number and types of appliances within the property.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein said processor is configured to generate said model by generating at least one appliance energy usage model, wherein said at least one appliance energy usage model includes a respective appliance energy usage model for each appliance identified in the input appliance data, and wherein said processor is configured to generate each of said appliance energy usage models by estimating energy consumed by each respective appliance identified in the input appliance data.

11. A system according to claim 10

wherein said processor is configured to modify said at least one appliance energy usage model using data from said at least one sensor.

12. A system according to claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to receive input property data detailing information about the property, and wherein said processor is further configured to generate said model of energy usage by combining said input property data with said input bill data and said regional average statistics.

13. A system according to claim 1,

wherein said at least one sensor is configured to generate an aggregate power series, wherein the aggregate power series includes aggregate power consumption data for a plurality of power consuming devices, and

wherein said processor is configured to:

filter the aggregate power consumption data to separate the aggregate power consumption data into a fast component and a slow component;

determine an average power of the fast component;

determine at least one period where the average power is greater than a threshold; and

compare the at least one period with a model defining operational characteristics of a power consuming device to identify the operation of at least one power consuming device of said plurality of power consuming devices.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein said processor is configured to filter said aggregate power consumption data using a Haar wavelet filter.

15. A system according to claim 13, wherein said processor is configured to determine said average power by measuring a right-tail-10% trimmed root-mean-square of the fast component.

16. A system according to claim 13, wherein each operational characteristic of the operational characteristics is selected from a group consisting of cycle duration, frequency of drum activity and power consumption.

17. A system according to claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to calculate the power consumption of a power consuming device by:

identifying the operation of the power consuming device; and

calculating the power consumption using the average power for the at least one period.

18. A computer-implemented method for providing feedback for energy saving to a user of a property comprising a plurality of appliances, the method comprising:

monitoring energy consumption of at least one appliance within said property using at least one sensor, resulting in energy consumption data for the at least one appliance;

receiving input bill data from an energy bill for said property for a predetermined time period, wherein the input bill data includes an energy consumption value indicating energy used for the predetermined time period;

receiving input regional average statistics specifying a respective average energy consumption value for each of a set of predetermined categories of energy usage;

generating a model of energy usage for said set of predetermined categories over said predetermined time period by combining said input bill data, energy consumption data from said at least one sensor and said regional average statistics, and wherein said generating further comprises;

multiplying the respective average energy consumption value for each of the predetermined categories by a respective first weighting associated with the predetermined time period to determine a plurality of first energy consumption values, wherein said plurality of first energy consumption values includes a respective first energy consumption value for each predetermined category;

determining a respective second weighting for each predetermined category based on said plurality of first energy consumption values; and

multiplying said respective second weighting for each predetermined category by said energy consumption value from the input bill data to provide a respective second energy consumption value for each predetermined category;

the method further comprising outputting data indicative of feedback for energy saving based on said generated model via a user interface.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computer system, cause said computer system to perform operations for providing feedback for energy saving to a user of a property comprising a plurality of appliances, the operations comprising:

monitoring energy consumption of at least one appliance within said property using at least one sensor, resulting in energy consumption data for the at least one appliance;

receiving input bill data from an energy bill for said property for a predetermined time period, wherein the input bill data includes an energy consumption value indicating energy used for the predetermined time period;

receiving input regional average statistics specifying a respective average energy consumption value for each of a set of predetermined categories of energy usage;

generating a model of energy usage for said set of predetermined categories over said predetermined time period by combining said input bill data, energy consumption data from said at least one sensor and said regional average statistics, and wherein said generating further comprises;

multiplying the respective average energy consumption value for each of the predetermined categories by a respective first weighting associated with the predetermined time period to determine a plurality of first energy consumption values, wherein said plurality of first energy consumption values includes a respective first energy consumption value for each predetermined category;

determining a respective second weighting for each predetermined category based on said plurality of first energy consumption values; and

multiplying said respective second weighting for each predetermined category by said energy consumption value from the input bill data to provide a respective second energy consumption value for each predetermined category;

the operations further comprising outputting data indicative of feedback for energy saving based on said generated model via a user interface.