Low cost home energy manager adaptor

Abstract

A home energy management (HEM) device for use in a HEM system including a plurality of energy consuming devices and a HEM gateway adaptor module connectable to a host device. The home energy gateway (HEG) module is configured to utilize services / components of existing household electronics. Accordingly, a HEM device for controlling a plurality of energy consuming devices in a HEM network comprises a host device having hardware for performing at least one service, and a HEG adaptor module connectable to the host device, the HEG module including at least a home energy usage database for storing data related to usage of energy consuming devices in the home energy management network. The HEG module is configured to utilize at least one service of the host to carry out at least one function related to controlling the plurality of energy consuming devices.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 304,712, filed on, Feb. 15, 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE[0002]The following disclosure relates to energy management, and more particularly to energy management of household consumer appliances, as well as other energy consuming devices and / or systems found in the home. The present disclosure finds particular application to a device which controls operation of consumer appliances, as well as other energy consuming devices and / or systems, and acts as a gateway between a Utility company network and the consumer appliances, as well as other energy consuming devices and / or systems. The controller / gateway device to be discussed below is at times called herein a Home Energy Gateway (HEG).[0003]Currently Utility companies commonly charge a flat rate for energy, but with the increasing cost of fuel prices and high energy usage ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0023]The device disclosed herein is a home energy gateway (HEG) that enables all the key functions of the HEM described above, and enables the flow of data between networks having different physical, link, network, transport and / or application layers, provides a lowest cost product to the consumer with the flexibility to interface with the HEM from any consumer electronics product already available in the home and / or replace any HEM in a home energy management network.

[0047]Other physical implementations are possible given the intent of minimizing the cost and the number of devices in a consumer's home. For example there are a number of devices in a consumer's home that already have power supplies. At a simple level, the HEG database and radios could be connected internally to a PC, Set Top Box, Cable Modem, Tivo, Video Player, or other consumer electronics device.

[0048]The base advantage of this to the consumer would be to utilize an existing power supply and enclosure, thus reducing (or not adding to) the number of devices in the home. Such implementation would also reduce the cost of the device.

[0052]These additional embodiments of the HEG do not change its function as described below or its inherent advantages to the consumer of being low cost, taking advantage of existing displays in the home, and storing data to avoid requiring an external server to access their data.

[0061]The HEG plays a key role for the Utility company in registering and communicating with devices within the home. Typical devices that have to work with the smart grid thru the smart meter need to be registered with the smart meter. This means that for every energy consuming device that is installed in a consumer's home, the consumer has to contact the Utility and provide them an install code to register the device, which requires time and resources for both the Utility Company and the consumer. Once the HEG is registered to the smart meter, the HEG then acts as a single point gateway for the Utility Company. In this way all other devices in the home are registered with the HEG and communicate with the HEG. The HEG then summarizes device actions, responses and status and communicates a single message to the Utility Company. This saves resources and infrastructure for the Utility Company's meter system as there is only one device communicating from the home, rather than 10 to 15 devices receiving messages, which would otherwise require a large amount of bandwidth.

[0063]In the same way, energy and water consumption in a home is an indicator of daily life in a home. It can indicate activity in a home, the number of people in a home, the health of people in a home, safety and intrusion in a home.

Problems solved by technology

Currently Utility companies commonly charge a flat rate for energy, but with the increasing cost of fuel prices and high energy usage during certain parts of the day, Utility companies have to buy more energy to supply customers during peak demand.

However, there is no active control beyond the mere on / off switching.

Similarly, known systems do not communicate directly with the appliance using a variety of communication methods and protocols, nor is a modular and standard method created for communication devices to interface and to communicate operational modes to the main controller of the appliance.

Both of the current existing types have significant disadvantages due to higher consumer cost, low flexibility and increased system complexity.

The first category requires a large upfront cost to the consumer, because the cost of providing an integrated display on the HEM very expensive.

In addition, the electronics required to drive the display is complex and expensive.

The second category of HEM involves a substantial cost to provide the server infrastructure and data transfer.

In addition, this type of HEM must be connected continuously with a remote server otherwise energy data logging and energy saving commands for the devices in the home will be lost during service disruptions.

Therefore this second configuration is very limiting in areas where Internet penetration is very low

Current HEM systems result in payback of about 3-5 years at best.

Therefore, since the standard life of an electronic device is about 5 years, the consumer is never paid back for their investment; as they will need to procure a new device before the investment payback period is reached.

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