Electrical equipment control device, electrical equipment control method and electrical equipment

• US 8,983,633 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2011
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kouda, Tetsuya, Tsujimura, Satoshi, Nakatani, Naofumi, Ikeda, Toshihisa, Yoshimura, Yasuo, Kurimoto, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Gami, Tejal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Karim, Ziaul
• Application Number:
  US13/822,167
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 700/22, 700/286, 700/287, 700/288, 700291-298
• US Class Current: 700/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• 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 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 3/008 involving trading of energy or energy transmission rights
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• 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 20/12 Energy storage units, uninterruptible power supply [UPS] systems or standby or emergency generators, e.g. in the last power distribution stages
• 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 40/126 using wireless data transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards

Abstract

An equipment control device has: a reception unit for receiving desired time information indicating a desired operation start time or a desired operation termination time, operation period information and electrical power information; a time-shift period setting unit for setting a time-shift period indicating a period which has a time range including the desired time information and during which the operation start time or the operation termination time of a household appliance is shiftable; an electrical power charge information acquisition unit for acquiring electrical power charge information; an operation time computing unit for computing the operation start time or the operation termination time, on the basis of which the electricity charge that is billed when the household appliance is operated within the time-shift period falls to or below a predetermined charge; and a transmission unit for transmitting the operation start time or the operation termination time to the household appliance.

Claims

1. An electrical equipment control device, comprising:

a reception unit for receiving desired time information indicating a desired operation start time or a desired operation termination time of an electrical equipment desired by a user, operation period information indicating a period required for operation by the electrical equipment, and electrical power information indicating an electrical power required for operation by the electrical equipment;

a time-shift period setting unit for setting a time-shift period indicating a period which has a time range including the desired time information received by the reception unit and during which the operation start time or the operation termination time of the electrical equipment is shiftable;

an electrical power charge information acquisition unit for acquiring electrical power charge information indicating an electrical power charge that changes hour to hour;

an operation time computing unit for computing, based on the desired time information, the operation period information and the electrical power information received by the reception unit and the electrical power charge information acquired by the electrical power charge information acquisition unit, the operation start time or the operation termination time, on the basis of which the electricity charge that is billed when the electrical equipment is operated within the time-shift period set by the time-shift period setting unit falls to or below a predetermined charge;

an operation determination unit for determining whether a state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining a post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value, wherein the time-shift period setting unit changes the time-shift period according to a determination result of the operation determination unit, wherein the time-shift period setting unit shortens the set time-shift period when the operation determination unit determines that the state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value; and

a transmission unit for transmitting, to the electrical equipment, the operation start time or the operation termination time computed by the operation time computing unit.

2. The electrical equipment control device according to claim 1, further comprising a confirmation unit for confirming an operating situation of another electrical equipment, wherein

the time-shift period setting unit changes the time-shift period according to the operating situation of the other electrical equipment confirmed by the confirmation unit.

3. The electrical equipment control device according to claim 2, wherein

the confirmation unit confirms an operation start time and an operation period of another electrical equipment, and

the time-shift period setting unit changes the set time-shift period so that a period identified by the operation start time and the operation period of the other electrical equipment confirmed by the confirmation unit is not included.

4. The electrical equipment control device according to claim 1, further comprising an individual information acquisition unit for acquiring individual information that is unique to the electrical equipment, wherein

the time-shift period setting unit sets the time-shift period according to the individual information acquired by the individual information acquisition unit.

5. An electrical equipment control method, comprising:

a reception step of receiving desired time information indicating a desired operation start time or a desired operation termination time of an electrical equipment desired by a user, operation period information indicating a period required for operation by the electrical equipment, and electrical power information indicating an electrical power required for operation by the electrical equipment;

a time-shift period setting step of setting a time-shift period indicating a period which has a time range including the desired time information received in the reception step and during which the operation start time or the operation termination time of the electrical equipment is shiftable;

an electrical power charge information acquisition step of acquiring electrical power charge information indicating an electrical power charge that changes hour to hour;

an operation time computing step of computing, based on the desired time information, the operation period information and the electrical power information received in the reception step and the electrical power charge information acquired in the electrical power charge information acquisition step, the operation start time or the operation termination time, on the basis of which the electricity charge that is billed when the electrical equipment is operated within the time-shift period set in the time-shift period setting step falls to or below a predetermined charge;

an operation determination step of determining whether a state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining a post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value, wherein the time-shift period setting step changes the time-shift period according to a determination result of the operation determination unit, wherein the time-shift period setting step shortens the set time-shift period when the operation determination unit determines that the state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value; and

a transmission step of transmitting, to the electrical equipment, the operation start time or the operation termination time computed in the operation time computing step.

6. An electrical equipment, comprising:

an input reception unit for receiving an input of desired time information indicating a desired operation start time or a desired operation termination time of an electrical equipment desired by a user;

a transmission unit for transmitting the desired time information received by the input reception unit, operation period information indicating a period required for operation by the electrical equipment, and electrical power information indicating an electrical power required for operation by the electrical equipment;

a reception unit for receiving the operation start time or the operation termination time transmitted from an electrical equipment control device which receives the desired time information, the operation period information and the electrical power information transmitted from the transmission unit, sets a time-shift period indicating a period which has a time range including the desired time information and during which the operation start time or the operation termination time of the electrical equipment is shiftable, and computes, based on the desired time information, the operation period information and the electrical power information and electrical power charge information indicating an electrical power charge that changes hour to hour, the operation start time or the operation termination time, on the basis of which the electricity charge that is billed when the electrical equipment is operated within the time-shift period falls to or below a predetermined charge; and

an operation control unit for controlling an operation of the electrical equipment based on the operation start time or the operation termination time received by the reception unit,

wherein the electrical equipment control device changes the time-shift period according to whether a state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining a post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value, wherein the electrical equipment control device shortens the set time-shift period when the state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value.

7. An electrical equipment, comprising:

an input reception unit for receiving an input of desired time information indicating a desired operation start time or a desired operation termination time of an electrical equipment desired by a user;

a time-shift period setting unit for setting a time-shift period indicating a period which has a time range including the desired time information received by the input reception unit and during which the operation start time or the operation termination time of the electrical equipment is shiftable;

an electrical power charge information acquisition unit for acquiring electrical power charge information indicating an electrical power charge that changes hour to hour;

an operation time computing unit for computing, based on the desired time information, the operation period information and the electrical power information received by the input reception unit and the electrical power charge information acquired by the electrical power charge information acquisition unit, the operation start time or the operation termination time, on the basis of which the electricity charge that is billed when the electrical equipment is operated within the time-shift period set by the time-shift period setting unit falls to or below a predetermined charge; and

an operation control unit for controlling an operation of the electrical equipment based on the operation start time or the operation termination time computed by the operation time computing unit; and

an operation determination unit for determining whether a state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining a post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value, wherein the time-shift period setting unit changes the time-shift period according to a determination result of the operation determination unit, wherein the time-shift period setting unit shortens the set time-shift period when the operation determination unit determines that the state retention electrical energy that is consumed by the electrical equipment for retaining post-operating state is greater than a predetermined value.