ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES

• US 20100092625A1
• Filed: 09/15/2009
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Watson, Eric, Franks, Darin, Nold, Craig, Little, Derrick Douglas, Ryan, Jeremy Joseph, Cox, Patrick Ryan, Steurer, Brian M., Burt, Ashley Wayne, Finch, Michael F., Besore, John K., Root, Steven Keith, Drake, Jeff Donald, Worthington, Timothy Dale, Weber, Jeffrey S., Venkatakrishnan, Natarajan
• Application Number:
  US12/559,597
• Publication Number:
  US 20100092625A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 426/231
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 21/04 Preventing the formation of frost or condensate
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00017 using optical fiber
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00024 by means of mobile telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00026 involving a local wireless network, e.g. Wi-Fi, ZigBee or Bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/14 The load or loads being home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/64 The condition being economic, e.g. tariff based load management
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/66 one of the loads acting as master and the other or others acting as slaves
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 40/00 Technologies aiming at improving the efficiency of home appliances, e.g. induction cooking or efficient technologies for refrigerators, freezers or dish washers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• 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: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/244 the home appliances being or involving heating ventilating and air conditioning [HVAC] units
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/124 using wired telecommunication networks or data transmission busses
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/126 using wireless data transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

A cooking appliance comprises one or more power consuming features/functions including at least one of a cooking cavity having a heating element and a cooking surface having a surface heating element. A controller is configured to receive and process a signal indicative of current state of an associated energy supplying utility. The controller operates the cooking appliance in one of a plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, in response to the received signal. The controller is configured to at least one of selectively delay, adjust and disable at least one of the one or more power consuming features/functions to reduce power consumption of the cooking appliance in the energy savings mode.

Claims

1. A cooking appliance comprising:

one or more power consuming features/functions including at least one of a cooking cavity having a heating element and a cooking surface having a surface heating element; and

a controller configured to receive and process a signal indicative of current state of an associated utility, the controller operating the cooking appliance in one of a plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, in response to the received signal, the controller being configured to at least one of selectively delay, adjust and disable at least one of the one or more power consuming features/functions to reduce power consumption of the cooking appliance in the energy savings mode.

2. The cooking appliance of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to reduce power of the heating element of the cooking cavity by selectively adjusting a duty cycle of the heating element throughout a selected cooking cycle.

3. The cooking appliance of claim 2, wherein the cooking cavity has a maximum setpoint temperature in the normal operating mode, the controller being configured to reduce the setpoint temperature in the energy savings mode.

4. The cooking appliance of claim 1, wherein the cooking surface having individual surface heating elements, the controller being configured to at least partially disable at least one surface heating element in the energy savings mode.

5. The cooking appliance of claim 4, wherein each individual surface heating element has a maximum setpoint temperature in the normal operating mode, the controller being configured to reduce the setpoint temperature of at least one activated surface heating element in the energy savings mode.

6. The cooking appliance of claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to reduce power of an activated surface heating element by selectively adjusting a duty cycle of the activated heating element in the energy savings mode.

7. The cooking appliance of claim 1, wherein the one or more power consuming features/functions further includes a pre-heat feature and a self clean feature, the controller being configured to at least one of disable the self clean feature and reduce a pre-heat ramp rate to reduce demand in the energy savings mode.

8. The cooking appliance of claim 1, wherein the one or more power consuming features/functions includes a second cooking cavity having a heating element, the controller being configured to disable one of the cooking cavities in the energy savings mode.

9. The cooking appliance of claim 1, wherein the one or more power consuming features/functions further includes a convection fan operatively associated with the cooking cavity and a light source for illuminating the cooking cavity, the controller being configured to at least one of disable or reduce the speed of the convection fan and disable or reduce the intensity of the light source in the energy savings mode.

10. The cooking appliance of claim 1, wherein the one or more power consuming features/functions further includes an exhaust hood having a light source and an exhaust fan, the controller being configured to at least one of disable or reduce the intensity of the light source and disable or reduce the speed of the exhaust fan in the energy savings mode.

11. The cooking appliance of claim 1, wherein the one or more power consuming features/functions further includes a magnetron operatively associated with the cooking cavity, the controller being configured to selectively adjust a power level of the magnetron in the energy savings mode.

12. The cooking appliance of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured determine a frequency of the energy signal, the controller at least partially blocking the energy signal when the magnetron is activated if the determined frequency of the energy signal is generally harmonic with a frequency of the activated magnetron.

13. The cooking appliance of claim 1, further including a user interface operatively connected to the controller, the user interface including a manual override providing a user the ability to select which of the one or more power consuming features/functions are delayed, adjusted and/or disabled by the controller in the energy savings mode, the user interface further including a display communicating activation of the energy savings mode.

14. A cooking appliance control method, comprising:

a) determining a state for an associated energy supplying utility, the utility state being indicative of at least a peak demand period or an off-peak demand period;

b) operating the cooking appliance in a normal mode during the off-peak demand period;

c) operating the cooking appliance in an energy savings mode during the peak demand period;

d) at least one of selectively delaying, adjusting and disabling any number of one or more power consuming features/functions of the cooking appliance to reduce power consumption of the cooking appliance in the energy savings mode, the one or more power consuming features/functions including a heating element located in a cooking cavity and individual heating elements located on a cooking surface; and

e) returning to the normal mode after the peak demand period is over.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising reducing a maximum setpoint temperature of the heating element of the cooking cavity and at least one heating element of the cooking surface in the energy savings mode.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

reducing power of the heating element of the cooking cavity by selectively adjusting a duty cycle of the heating element throughout a selected cooking cycle in the energy savings mode,

reducing power of at least one surface heating element by selectively adjusting a duty cycle of the at least one surface heating element in the energy savings mode, and

disabling at least one surface heating element in the energy savings mode.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more power consuming features/functions further includes at least one of a self clean feature and a pre-heat feature, and further comprising disabling the self clean feature and reducing a pre-heat ramp rate in the energy savings mode.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more power consuming features/functions further includes:

a convection fan operatively associated with the cooking cavity,

a light source for illuminating the cooking cavity, and

an exhaust hood having a light source and an exhaust fan, and further comprising;

disabling or reducing the speed of the convection fan in the energy savings mode,

disabling or reducing the intensity of the cooking cavity light source in the energy savings mode,

disabling or reducing the speed of the exhaust fan in the energy savings mode, and

disabling or reducing the intensity of the exhaust hood light source in the energy savings mode.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining energy cost associated with the utility state;

displaying current cost of operating the cooking appliance,

displaying current cost of supplied energy, and

alerting a user of a peak demand period.

20. A cooking appliance comprising:

a cooking cavity having a heating element;

a cooking surface having individual surface heating elements; and

a controller configured to receive and process an energy signal, the signal having a first state indicative of a utility peak demand period and a second state indicative of a utility off-peak demand period, the controller operating the cooking appliance in one of an energy savings mode and a normal operating mode based on the received signal being in the first and second states respectively,

wherein the controller is configured to reduce the power of the cooking cavity heating element and reduce the power of at least one of the individual surface heating elements in the energy savings mode, and

wherein the controller is configured to disable at least one of the individual surface heating elements in the energy savings mode.

21. The cooking appliance of claim 20, further including a self clean feature associated with the cooking cavity, the controller being configured to disable the self clean feature in the energy savings mode.

22. The cooking appliance of claim 20, wherein the energy signal has an associated energy cost and wherein the controller is configured to override the operating mode of the cooking appliance based on a user selected targeted energy cost,

wherein if current energy cost exceeds the user selected cost, the controller operates the appliance in the energy savings mode, and

wherein if the current energy cost is less than the user selected cost, the controller operates the appliance in the normal operating mode.

23. The cooking appliance of claim 20, wherein the energy signal has an associated energy cost and further including a display communicating current cost of energy and current cost of operating the appliance.

24. The cooking appliance of claim 20, further including a display communicating activation of the energy savings mode.

25. The cooking appliance of claim 24, wherein the energy savings mode display includes a message selected from the group consisting of “

ECO”

, “

Eco”

, “

EP”

, “

ER”

, “

CP”

, “

CPP”

, “

DR”

, and “

PP”

.