DEMAND RESPONSE DEVICE

• US 20160141869A1
• Filed: 05/13/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Aji, Sudarshan Mandayam, Loftus, Thom, Peters, Edward L., Byron, David, Yu, Janet
• Granted Patent: US 10,033,184 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00 Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
• 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 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 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/30 State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge
• 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 20/00 Management or operation of end-user stationary applications or the last stages of power distribution; Controlling, monitoring or operating thereof
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/20 End-user application control systems

Abstract

Aspects of the subject technology relate to a demand response device that is configured to receive comparison report information from a notification system, wherein the notification system is configured to execute steps including receiving at least one temperature report for each of a plurality of demand response devices, and identifying two or more demand response devices that share a common geographic location. In some aspects, a notification system of the subject technology can be further configured for generating a comparison report, wherein the comparison report is based on the ambient temperature information and the geolocation data for at least two of the plurality of demand response devices.

Claims

1. A demand response device, comprising:

a microprocessor;

a global positioning system (GPS) module coupled to the microprocessor;

a thermal sensor coupled to the microprocessor; and

a network interface coupled to the microprocessor, wherein the microprocessor is configured to correlate ambient temperature information received from the thermal sensor with geolocation data provided by the GPS module, and

wherein the microprocessor is further configured to perform operations comprising;

sending, via the network interface, a temperature report to a remote server, wherein the temperature report comprises the ambient temperature information and the geolocation data; and

receiving, via the network interface, a comparison report from the remote server, wherein the comparison report includes comparative thermostat setting information for one or more proximately located demand response devices.

2. The demand response device of claim 1, wherein the comparison report comprises ambient temperature information for the one or more proximately located demand response devices.

3. The demand response device of claim 1, wherein the comparison report comprises user instructions indicating one or more behaviors for reducing electric power consumption.

4. The demand response device of claim 1, further comprising:

a display module coupled to the microprocessor, and

wherein the microprocessor is further configured to perform operations comprising;

providing at least a portion of the comparison report to a user via the display module.

5. The demand response device of claim 4, wherein the display module comprises one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

6. The demand response device of claim 4, wherein the display module comprise a display screen.

7. The demand response device of claim 1, further comprising:

a humidity sensor coupled to the microprocessor, and

wherein the comparative thermostat setting information is based on relative humidity information for each of the one or more proximately located demand response devices.

8. A notification system configured for generating comparison reports for one or more demand response devices, the notification system comprising:

one or more processors, and

a computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving at least one temperature report for each of a plurality of demand response devices, wherein each of the temperature reports comprises ambient temperature information and geolocation data for a respective one of the plurality of demand response devices;

identifying two or more demand response devices that share a common geographic location; and

generating a comparison report, wherein the comparison report is based on the ambient temperature information and the geolocation data for at least two of the plurality of demand response devices.

9. The notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

providing the comparison report to a first one of the two or more demand response devices, wherein the comparison report provides one or more of;

thermostat setting information, or ambient temperature information associated with a second one of the two or more demand response devices.

10. The notification system of claim 8, wherein generating the comparison report is based on weather information for a geolocation of at least one of the plurality of demand response devices.

11. The notification system of claim 8, wherein the comparison report comprises instructions indicating at least one user behavior for reducing electric power consumption.

12. The notification system of claim 8, wherein at least a portion of the comparison report is configured for display on a display module of a demand response device.

13. The notification system of claim 8, wherein the at least one temperature report comprises humidity information associated with each of the plurality of demand response devices.

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

receiving at least one temperature report for each of a plurality of demand response devices;

identifying two or more demand response devices that share a common geographic location; and

generating a comparison report for at least two of the plurality of demand response devices.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein each of the temperature reports comprises ambient temperature information and geolocation data for a respective one of the plurality of demand response devices, and

wherein the comparison report is based on the ambient temperature information and the geolocation data.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

providing the comparison report to a first one of the two or more demand response devices, wherein the comparison report provides one or more of;

thermostat setting information, or ambient temperature information associated with a second one of the two or more demand response devices.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein generating the comparison report is based on weather information for a geolocation of at least one of the plurality of demand response devices.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the comparison report comprises instructions indicating at least one user behavior for reducing electric power consumption.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein at least a portion of the comparison report is configured to be provided on a display module of a demand response device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one temperature report comprises humidity information associated with each of the plurality of demand response devices.