Notification techniques for reducing energy usage

• US 10,371,861 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2015
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Yu, Suelyn, Chung, Garner, Royer, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dzung
• Application Number:
  US14/848,097
• Publication Number:
  US 20160238740A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 702 3, 702150, 702189, 700287
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/10 Devices for predicting weather conditions computers per se G06; display devices G09
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

Notification techniques for reducing energy usage include detecting a weather event for a location of at least one consumer, determining, based on the weather event, at least one modified behavior to reduce energy usage for the at least one consumer, and providing a notification to the at least one consumer regarding the at least one modified behavior for the weather event.

Claims

1. A power usage device, comprising:

one or more network interfaces to communicate with in a communication network;

a processor coupled to the network interfaces and configured to execute one or more processes; and

a memory configured to store instructions executable by the processor, the instructions when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

evaluate responsiveness by a plurality of consumers to notifications of suggested behavior modifications for reducing energy consumption to identify a target audience of consumers that implemented the suggested behavior modifications;

determine whether a temperature of a location of at least one consumer of the target audience of consumers crosses a threshold temperature for a time period;

in response to determining that the temperature of the location crosses the threshold temperature for the time period, determine a weather event, from amongst a plurality of weather events, for the location of the at least one consumer;

determine, based on the weather event, at least one modified behavior to reduce energy usage for the at least one consumer;

generate, by at least the processor, a notification that includes information regarding the at least one modified behavior;

transmit, via a network communication, the notification to remote computers of the at least one consumer regarding the at least one modified behavior for the weather event;

measure energy consumption of the at least one consumer to determine whether the at least one consumer implemented the at least one modified behavior; and

update the target audience of consumers for subsequent transmission of notifications to remote devices for reducing energy consumption based upon whether the at least one consumer implemented the at least one modified behavior.

2. The power usage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions for determining the weather event are further configured to cause the processor to:

in response to determining that the temperature of the location is above the threshold temperature for the time period, determine a hot weather event, from amongst the plurality of weather events, for the location of the at least one consumer.

3. The power usage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions for determining the weather event are further configured to cause the processor to:

in response to determining that the temperature of the location is below the threshold temperature for the time period, determine a cold weather event, from amongst the plurality of weather events, for the location of the at least one consumer.

4. The power usage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, are further configured to cause the processor to:

determine a projected change in energy usage for at least one modified behavior, and

wherein, the instructions to provide the notification to the at least one consumer is further operable to provide the notification to the at least one consumer regarding the projected change in energy usage.

5. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media having software encoded thereon, the software, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

evaluate responsiveness by a plurality of consumers to notifications of suggested behavior modifications for reducing energy consumption to identify a target audience of consumers that implemented the suggested behavior modifications;

detect a weather event for a location of at least one consumer of the target audience of consumers;

select, based on the weather event, at least one modified behavior from amongst a plurality of modified behaviors to reduce energy usage for the at least one consumer, the at least one modified behavior including opening windows at a residence of the at least one consumer;

in response to selecting the at least one modified behavior, generate a notification comprising instructions to open windows;

in response to generating the notification, transmit, via a network communication, the notification to a remote device of the at least one consumer;

measure energy consumption of the at least one consumer to determine whether the at least one consumer implemented the at least one modified behavior; and

generate a subsequent target audience of consumers for subsequent transmission of notifications to remote devices for reducing energy consumption based upon whether the at least one consumer implemented the at least one modified behavior.

6. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the software, when executed by the processor, is further operable to:

determine a change in temperature for a time period; and

detect the weather event when the change in the temperature for the time period is greater than a temperature threshold.

7. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the software, when executed by the processor, is further operable to:

select consumers to include within the target audience of consumers based on one or more weather events detected for one or more locations of the consumers; and

control transmission of the notification based on the target audience of consumers, wherein the notification is transmitted, via the network communication, to only remote devices associated with each consumer in the target audience of consumers.

8. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the modified behavior includes at least one of opening one or more windows of a building associated with the at least one consumer, turning off a heating source for the building, turning off a cooling source for the building, or preventing an amount of sunlight from entering the building.

9. A method performed by a power usage device comprising at least a processor coupled to a network and configured to execute instructions from a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store instructions executable by the processor, the method comprising:

evaluating, by at least the processor accessing the memory, responsiveness by a plurality of consumers to notifications of suggested behavior modifications for reducing energy consumption to identify a target audience of consumers that implemented the suggested behavior modifications;

determining, by at least the processor accessing the memory, whether a temperature of a location of at least one consumer of the target audience of consumers crosses a threshold temperature for a time period;

in response to determining that the temperature of the location crosses the threshold temperature for the time period, determining, by the processor accessing the memory, a weather event, from amongst a plurality of weather events, for the location of the at least one consumer;

determining by the processor accessing the memory, based on the weather event, at least one modified behavior to reduce energy usage for the at least one consumer;

generating, by at least the processor accessing the memory, a notification that includes information regarding the at least one modified behavior; and

transmitting, by at least the processor via a network communication, the notification to remote computers of the at least one consumer identified in the target audience of consumers to convey the at least one modified behavior for the weather event.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

measuring, by the processor accessing data from the memory, energy consumption of the at least one consumer to determine whether the at least one consumer implemented the at least one modified behavior; and

updating, by the processing accessing the memory, the target audience of consumers for subsequent transmission of notifications to remote devices for reducing energy consumption based upon whether the at least one consumer implemented the at least one modified behavior.