Energy management of household appliances

• US 8,618,452 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2009
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc. DBA GE Appliances (Haier Group Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Besore, John K., Finch, Michael F., Venkatakrishnan, Natarajan, Nold, Craig, Drake, Jeff Donald, Little, Derrick Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomas, Tom
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIU, BENJAMIN T
• Application Number:
  US12/559,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20100089909A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• Field of Search: 219/702, 219/721, 219/506, 219/490, 219/509, 219/489, 700/295, 700/296, 700/291, 700/286, 307/31, 307/35, 307/39
• US Class Current: 219/702
• 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 microwave oven comprises a cooking cavity and a RF generation module configured to deliver microwave energy into the cooking cavity. A controller is operatively associated with the RF generation module. The controller receives and processes a signal indicative of current state of an associated energy supplying utility for determining whether to operate the microwave oven in one of a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode in response to the received signal. The controller is configured to at least temporarily block the signal when the RF generation module is activated if a frequency of the signal is at least partially degraded by a frequency of the RF generation module.

Claims

1. A microwave oven comprising:

a cooking cavity;

a RF generation module configured to deliver microwave energy into the cooking cavity; and

a controller operatively associated with the RF generation module, the controller receiving and processing a signal indicative of current state of an associated energy supplying utility for determining whether to operate the microwave oven in one of a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, wherein the controller is configured to automatically and without requiring user input, at least temporarily block the signal when the RF generation module is activated if a frequency of the signal is at least partially degraded by a frequency of the RF generation module;

wherein the RF generation module operates on a duty cycle throughout a selected cooking cycle, the RF generation module cycling on and off during the duty cycle, the controller being configured to block signal communication during the entire duty cycle when the RF generation module is on.

2. The microwave oven of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to selectively adjust and/or deactivate one or more power consuming features/functions of the microwave oven to reduce power consumption in the energy savings mode.

3. The microwave oven of claim 2, wherein the microwave oven further includes a fan, the controller being configured to reduce speed of the fan in the energy savings mode.

4. The microwave oven of claim 2, wherein the microwave oven further includes a light source, the controller being configured to reduce the intensity of the light source in the energy savings mode.

5. The microwave oven of claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to reduce a power level of the RF generation module in the energy savings mode.

6. The microwave oven of claim 2, further comprising a user interface operatively connected to the controller, the user interface including a selectable override option to enable a user to prevent the controller from selectively adjusting and/or deactivating the one or more power consuming features/functions in the energy savings mode.

7. The microwave oven of claim 2, wherein the user interface further includes a display communicating activation of the energy savings mode.

8. The microwave oven of claim 7, wherein the energy savings mode display includes a display selected from the group consisting of ‘

“

ECO”

, “

Eco”

, “

EP”

, “

ER”

, “

CP”

“

CPP”

“

DR”

, and “

PP”

.

9. A microwave oven comprising:

a cooking cavity;

a RF generation module configured to deliver microwave energy into the cooking cavity; and

a controller operatively associated with the RF generation module, the controller receiving and processing a signal indicative of current state of an associated energy supplying utility for determining whether to operate the microwave oven in one of a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, wherein the controller is configured to automatically and without requiring user input, at least temporarily block the signal when the RF generation module is activated if a frequency of the signal is at least partially degraded by a frequency of the RF generation module;

wherein the controller is configured to continue operation of the microwave oven in one of the normal operating mode and the energy savings mode during a time period that the signal is blocked; and

wherein the controller is configured to queue the blocked signal during operation of the RF generation module.

10. A microwave oven control method, comprising:

communicating with an associated utility;

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;

operating the microwave oven in a normal mode during the off-peak demand period;

operating the microwave oven in an energy savings mode during the peak demand period;

automatically and without requiring user input, blocking the communication with the associated utility during operating of the microwave oven to prevent unreliable communications during operation of the microwave oven;

queuing the communication with the associated utility during operating of the microwave oven; and

processing the queue after operation of the microwave oven for at least partially determining current operating mode for the microwave oven.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising selectively adjusting any number of one or more power consuming functions of the microwave oven to reduce power consumption of the microwave oven in the energy savings mode.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising reducing power to a RF generation module of the microwave oven in the energy savings mode.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

reducing speed of a fan of the microwave oven in the energy savings mode, and

reducing an intensity of a light source of the microwave oven in the energy savings mode.

14. A microwave oven comprising:

a cooking cavity;

a RF generation module configured to deliver microwave energy into the cooking cavity; and

a controller operatively associated with the RF generation module, the controller configured to receive and process an energy signal from an associated utility, 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 microwave oven 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 at least (i) reduce power of the RF generation module in the energy savings mode, (ii) determine a frequency of the incoming energy signal, and (iii) automatically and without requiring user input temporarily, block receipt of the energy signal when the RF generation module is activated if the determined frequency of the energy signal is impacted by a frequency of the RF generation module; and

wherein the controller is configured to queue the energy signal during activation of the RF generation module and process the queue after deactivation of the RF generation module for at least partially determining current operating mode for the microwave oven.

15. The microwave of claim 14, wherein the microwave oven further includes a fan and a light source, the controller being configured to reduce at least one of the speed of the fan and the intensity of the light source in the energy savings mode.