Power consumption estimation method, computer program, and information processing device

Abstract

To provide a power consumption estimation method, a computer program, and an information processing device capable of facilitating the introduction of a system for estimating the power consumption of each electrical home appliance in which a special device for measuring power consumption is connected to each electrical home appliance and only data from a smart meter installed by an electric power company for meter reading is utilized without using a system for collecting the measured data.SOLUTION: The power consumption estimation method includes acquiring a total power consumption amount measured by a smart meter, acquiring information on one or more electrical appliances installed in a house, acquiring basic power consumption of each electrical appliance installed in the house from a database that stores each electrical appliance in association with the basic power consumption of the electrical appliance based on the acquired information, estimating whether or not each electrical appliance installed in the house is used, and the estimating power consumption of each electrical appliance based on the total power consumption amount measured by the smart meter, the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance and the presence / absence of use of each electrical appliance.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a power consumption estimation method, a computer program, and an information processing device for estimating the amount of power consumption of each electrical appliance installed in a house. [Background technology]

[0002] Smart meters that measure the amount of power consumed in houses and the like are becoming more widespread. Conventionally, meter readers visually checked the meter readings on the power meters, but smart meters can automatically measure at regular intervals and automatically transmit the measurement results to the server device of the power company, etc., which has the advantage of eliminating the need for meter readers. In addition, while meter readers perform their work about once a month, smart meters can transmit the measurement results, for example, about once every 30 minutes, which has the advantage of allowing the latest measurement results to be managed. However, the amount of power consumed by a smart meter is the total amount of power consumed by the entire house and the like at the power receiving point for the purpose of the power company charging according to the amount of power consumed by the consumer (user), and it is not possible to know the individual amounts of power consumed by multiple electrical appliances installed inside the house and the like.

[0003] Patent Document 1 proposes an information processing method for device separation that determines the power consumption of each of multiple devices in a home or the like. In this information processing method, a control device operates the devices in the home to recognize the operating states of the devices, and transmits device labels representing the devices and operating state labels representing the operating states of the devices to an information processing device. The information processing device acquires the device labels and operating state labels from the control device, identifies pattern information representing the current consumption of the devices in their current operating states based on possibility information indicating the possibility that the device is consuming the current consumption represented by the pattern information, and associates the device labels and operating state labels with this pattern information. It is expected that this technology can be applied to device separation that separates the current consumption of each device. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] International Publication No. 2016 / 013411 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, the information processing method described in Patent Document 1 requires separate dedicated devices such as a control device for operating household appliances and a current sensor for detecting household current consumption and transmitting it to a server device, etc. In order to identify the appliance being used, the current sensor needs to detect and transmit the current consumption frequently enough to grasp the waveform of the appliance's specific current consumption, so the power consumption amount of a smart meter that transmits the power consumption amount about once every 30 minutes cannot be used. For these reasons, in order to implement the information processing method described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to install a dedicated sensor and collect information using the sensor, which poses the problem of requiring a considerable amount of time and cost.

[0006] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its object is to provide a power consumption estimation method, a computer program, and an information processing device that are expected to facilitate the introduction of a system for estimating the amount of power consumption by each electrical appliance in a house. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In one embodiment, an information processing device acquires the total power consumption measured by a smart meter, acquires the basic power consumption of each electrical device connected to the smart meter, estimates whether each electrical device is being used, and estimates the power consumption of each electrical device based on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter, the basic power consumption of each electrical device, and whether each electrical device is being used. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to one embodiment, it is expected that it will be easy to introduce a system for estimating the amount of power consumed by each electrical appliance in a house. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an overview of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a power consumption estimation server device according to the present embodiment. [Diagram 3] 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a user terminal device according to the present embodiment. FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a basic power consumption DB. [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a second basic power consumption DB. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a scatter diagram. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a basic power consumption determination process performed by the power consumption estimation server device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 8] 5 is a flowchart showing steps of a standby power amount estimation process performed by the power consumption amount estimation server device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 9] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of a house information DB; [Figure 10] 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a power consumption amount estimation process performed by the power consumption amount estimation server device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 11] 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display of an estimated power consumption amount by a user terminal device according to the present embodiment. FIG. [Figure 12] 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display of an estimated power consumption amount by a user terminal device according to the present embodiment. FIG. [Figure 13] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display of a feedback information reception screen of a user terminal device 5 according to the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Specific examples of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to these examples, but is defined by the claims, and is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope of the claims.

[0011] <System Overview> 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an overview of an information processing system according to the present embodiment. The information processing system according to the present embodiment is a system that performs processing to estimate the individual power consumption of a plurality of electrical appliances installed in a house 1, such as a general home, based on the power consumption measured by a smart meter 2 installed in the house 1. Note that in the present embodiment, the house 1, such as a general home, is the subject of power consumption estimation, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the power consumption of each electrical appliance may be estimated for various facilities, such as a store, company, school, or factory.

[0012] The smart meter 2 installed in the house 1 is a device that measures the total amount of power consumed by multiple electrical appliances installed in the house 1. The amount of power consumption measured by the smart meter 2 is not the amount of power consumption of each electrical appliance installed in the house 1, but the total amount of power consumption consumed by multiple (all) electrical appliances installed in the house 1. The smart meter 2 also has a function of performing wired or wireless communication, and transmits the measurement result of the total amount of power consumption in the house 1 to, for example, an electric power company server device 3 managed and operated by an electric power company. The smart meter 2 repeatedly transmits the measurement result at a predetermined period (for example, once every 30 minutes). For example, the smart meter 2 measures the integrated power value of the amount of power consumption every 30 minutes and transmits it to the electric power company server device 3, and the electric power company server device 3 stores and accumulates the measurement result every 30 minutes received from the smart meter 2 in a database. The power company server device 3 can use the calculated value of the power consumption for every 30 minutes to calculate the total power consumption in the house 1 for every 30 minutes, every day, every month, or the like.

[0013] The information processing system according to the present embodiment includes an energy consumption estimation server device 4 that performs processing to estimate the individual energy consumption of a plurality of electrical appliances installed in the house 1 from the total energy consumption of the house 1 measured by the smart meter 2. The energy consumption estimation server device 4 may be a device managed and operated by, for example, an electric power company, or may be a device managed and operated by, for example, a company or organization different from the electric power company. When the energy consumption estimation server device 4 is managed and operated by an electric power company, the electric power company server device 3 and the energy consumption estimation server device 4 may be realized as a single server device. Furthermore, the energy consumption estimation server device 4 may be connected to a system including a plurality of electric power company server devices 3 or a plurality of smart meters 2.

[0014] The power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires information on the total power consumption of the house 1, which the power company server device 3 acquires from the smart meter 2 and stores in a database or the like. The power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires information from the power company server device 3 repeatedly at a predetermined cycle. The cycle for acquiring information by the power consumption estimation server device 4 may be the same as the cycle at which the smart meter 2 transmits the metering result (e.g., once every 30 minutes), or may be a cycle longer than this cycle (e.g., once every hour or once a day). Alternatively, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may not acquire information periodically from the power company server device 3, but may aperiodically acquire information required for calculation in response to a request from a user, for example.

[0015] Furthermore, the electric power company server device 3 acquires and stores measurement results of the total energy consumption for a plurality of houses 1 from a plurality of smart meters 2. The energy consumption estimation server device 4 does not need to acquire the measurement results for all of the houses 1 stored by the electric power company server device 3, but only needs to acquire the measurement results for at least the houses 1 of users who use the services provided by the information processing system according to this embodiment.

[0016] The power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires information on the total power consumption in the house 1 on the previous day from the power company server device 3, for example, once a day. The power consumption estimation server device 4 prestores information on a plurality of electrical appliances installed in the house 1, and estimates the total power consumption of each electrical appliance in the house 1 for the entire day from the total power consumption acquired from the power company server device 3. Furthermore, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may estimate how many electrical appliances of what category are being used from the total power consumption of the smart meter 2 of the house 1 at a certain time interval (for example, 30 minutes) instead of pre-storing information on a plurality of electrical appliances installed in the house 1. The power consumption estimation server device 4 transmits information on the estimated power consumption of each electrical appliance to a user terminal device 5 carried by a user such as a resident of the house 1. Based on the information received from the power consumption estimation server device 4, the user terminal device 5 displays an estimated value of the power consumption of each electrical appliance installed in the house 1, or a percentage of the power consumption of each electrical appliance relative to the total power consumption, and notifies the user.

[0017] 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the present embodiment. The power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the present embodiment is configured to include a processing unit (processor) 41, a memory unit (storage) 42, and a communication unit (transceiver) 43. Note that, in the present embodiment, the processing will be described as being performed by one power consumption estimation server device 4, but the processing may be distributed among a plurality of server devices.

[0018] The processing unit 41 is configured using an arithmetic processing device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro-Processing Unit) or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory), etc. The processing unit 41 reads and executes a server program 42a stored in the storage unit 42 to perform various processes such as a process of acquiring the total power consumption of the house 1 measured by the smart meter 2 from the power company server device 3, a process of estimating whether each electrical appliance installed in the house 1 is in use, and a process of estimating the power consumption of each electrical appliance.

[0019] The storage unit 42 is configured using a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk. The storage unit 42 stores various programs executed by the processing unit 41 and various data required for processing by the processing unit 41. In this embodiment, the storage unit 42 stores a server program 42a executed by the processing unit 41, and is provided with a basic power consumption DB (database) 42b that stores various information, a house information DB 42c that stores information on electrical appliances in the house 1, and a condition information DB 42d.

[0020] In this embodiment, the server program 42a is provided in a form recorded on a recording medium 99 such as an external or internal semiconductor memory card, an optical disk, or a magnetic disk, and the power consumption estimation server device 4 reads the server program 42a from the recording medium 99 and stores it in the storage unit 42. However, the server program 42a may be written in the storage unit 42, for example, during the manufacturing stage of the power consumption estimation server device 4. In addition, for example, the server program 42a may be distributed by another remote server device or the like and acquired by the power consumption estimation server device 4 through communication. For example, the server program 42a may be read from the recording medium 99 by a writing device and written into the storage unit 42 of the power consumption estimation server device 4. The server program 42a may be provided in a form distributed via a network or in a form recorded on the recording medium 99.

[0021] The basic power consumption DB 42b is a database that stores, as basic power consumption, values ​​of power consumption of electrical appliances manufactured and sold so far, such as values ​​of power consumption published by manufacturers of the electrical appliances or values ​​of power consumption of electrical appliances measured by companies providing services of the information processing system according to the present embodiment. The house information DB 42c is a database that stores information about the house 1 that is the target of the present service. The information about the house 1 may include various information, such as information input by a user as information about electrical appliances installed in the house 1 or information about electrical appliances estimated by the processing unit 41 to be connected in the house 1, identification information of the smart meter 2 installed in the house 1, information about the structure of the house 1, and identification information of the user or the user terminal device 5. The condition information DB 42d is a database that stores conditions for estimating whether an electrical appliance installed in the house 1 has been used (whether it was in an on or off state). Details of these databases will be described later.

[0022] The communication unit 43 communicates with various devices via a network N including the Internet, a mobile phone communication network, a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), etc. In the present embodiment, the communication unit 43 communicates between one or more electric power company server devices 3 and one or more user terminal devices 5 via the network N. The communication unit 43 transmits data provided from the processing unit 41 to other devices, and provides data received from other devices to the processing unit 41.

[0023] The storage unit 42 may be an external storage device connected to the power consumption estimation server device 4. The power consumption estimation server device 4 may be a multi-computer including a plurality of computers, or may be a virtual machine virtually constructed by software. The power consumption estimation server device 4 is not limited to the above configuration, and may include, for example, a reading unit that reads information stored in a portable storage medium, an input unit that accepts operation input, or a display unit that displays images.

[0024] In addition, in the processing unit 41 of the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment, a total power consumption acquisition unit 41a, an information acquisition unit 41b, a standby power consumption estimation unit 41c, a usage estimation unit 41d, a power consumption estimation unit 41e, and the like are realized as software functional units by the processing unit 41 reading and executing a server program 42a stored in a storage unit 42. Note that these functional units are functional units related to the process of estimating the power consumption of the electric appliances installed in the house 1, and illustrations and descriptions of other functional units are omitted.

[0025] The total power consumption acquisition unit 41a performs a process of acquiring information on the total power consumption of the house 1 stored and accumulated in the power company server device 3 by communicating with one or more power company server devices 3 via the network N using the communication unit 43. In this embodiment, for example, the smart meter 2 transmits the measurement result of the total power consumption of the house 1 to the power company server device 3 once every 30 minutes, and the power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires the information on the total power consumption from the power company server device 3 once a day. Therefore, the total power consumption acquisition unit 41a acquires measurement values ​​of the total power consumption for 24 hours (i.e., 48 measurement values ​​for 30 minutes) for one house 1 once a day. However, the above-mentioned cycle for acquiring information is an example and is not limited thereto.

[0026] The information acquisition unit 41b performs a process of acquiring various information necessary for processing. For example, the information acquisition unit 41b conducts a questionnaire or the like for a user who is about to start using the service according to the present embodiment to input information about electrical devices installed in the house 1, acquires information about the electrical devices input by the user, and stores the information in the house information DB 42c of the storage unit 42. For example, the information acquisition unit 41b acquires the basic power consumption of each electrical device installed in the house 1 by referring to the basic power consumption DB 42b, and stores the basic power consumption of each electrical device in the house information DB 42c. Furthermore, the information acquisition unit 41b may estimate the electrical devices installed in the house 1 based on the total power consumption acquired by the total power consumption acquisition unit 41a, and store the estimated information in the house information DB 42c.

[0027] In the present embodiment, the standby power consumption refers to, for example, a state in which a television is not being watched and a device is in standby with very little power consumption so that it can be controlled from a device such as a remote control, as well as the amount of power consumed by a device such as a refrigerator that consumes power 24 hours a day and is used without any time period of rest. The standby power consumption estimation unit 41c performs a process of estimating the amount of standby power consumed by a plurality of electrical devices installed in the house 1. The standby power consumption estimation unit 41c acquires, for example, information on the total power consumption in the house 1 for a predetermined period (for example, one week or one month) from the power company server device 3. Based on the acquired information, the standby power consumption estimation unit 41c compares the total power consumption for every 30 minutes on each day of the predetermined period and extracts the smallest total power consumption on each day. The standby power consumption estimation unit 41c estimates the most frequently occurring total power consumption as the standby power consumption of the house 1 from the minimum total power consumption for the extracted multiple days. Note that the method of estimating the standby power consumption by the standby power consumption estimation unit 41c is not limited to the above, and various methods may be used to estimate the standby power consumption. The standby power amount estimation unit 41c may take the average value of the minimum total power consumption amounts extracted over multiple days as the standby power amount, or may take the minimum value as the standby power amount. In this embodiment, the standby power amount estimated by the standby power amount estimation unit 41c is the total value of the standby power amounts of multiple electric devices installed in the house 1, and is the standby power amount for 30 minutes. When the standby power amount for one day is required, the standby power amount for 24 hours is calculated by multiplying the estimated standby power amount for 30 minutes by 48.

[0028] The usage estimation unit 41d performs a process of estimating whether each electrical appliance provided in the house 1 has been used or not, based on the information on the total power consumption of the house 1 acquired by the total power consumption acquisition unit 41a, the information on the electrical appliances of the house 1 acquired by the information acquisition unit 41b, the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance, the standby power consumption of the house 1 estimated by the standby power consumption estimation unit 41c, and the judgment conditions for each electrical appliance stored in the condition information DB 42d of the storage unit 42. In this embodiment, the usage estimation unit 41d estimates whether each electrical appliance has been used every 30 minutes, and estimates the time each electrical appliance has been used in a day. Details of the estimation process by the usage estimation unit 41d will be described later.

[0029] The power consumption estimation unit 41e performs a process of estimating the daily power consumption of each electrical appliance installed in the house 1. The power consumption estimation unit 41e can calculate the daily power consumption of each electrical appliance based on the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance stored in the basic power consumption DB 42b and the time during which each electrical appliance was used estimated by the usage estimation unit 41d. The power consumption estimation unit 41e transmits information about the estimated power consumption of each electrical appliance to the user terminal device 5 of the user associated with the house 1, and causes the user terminal device 5 to display information about the power consumption of the electrical appliances in the house 1.

[0030] 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a user terminal device 5 according to this embodiment. The user terminal device 5 according to this embodiment is configured to include a processing unit (processor) 51, a memory unit (storage) 52, a communication unit (transceiver) 53, a display unit (display) 54, and an operation unit 55. The user terminal device 5 can be configured using an information processing device such as a general-purpose personal computer, a smartphone, or a tablet terminal device.

[0031] The processing unit 51 is configured using an arithmetic processing device such as a CPU or an MPU, a ROM, a RAM, etc. The processing unit 51 reads out and executes a program 52a stored in the storage unit 52 to perform various processes such as a process of accepting information input by a user and a process of displaying information related to the power consumption of an electrical device.

[0032] The storage unit 52 is configured using, for example, a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk or a non-volatile memory element such as a flash memory. The storage unit 52 stores various programs executed by the processing unit 51 and various data necessary for the processing of the processing unit 51. In this embodiment, the storage unit 52 stores the program 52a executed by the processing unit 51. In this embodiment, the program 52a is distributed by a remote server device or the like, and the user terminal device 5 acquires it through communication and stores it in the storage unit 52. However, the program 52a may be written in the storage unit 52, for example, during the manufacturing stage of the user terminal device 5. For example, the program 52a may be read by the user terminal device 5 from the program 52a recorded in a recording medium 98 such as a memory card or an optical disk and stored in the storage unit 52. For example, the program 52a may be read by a writing device from the program 52a recorded in the recording medium 98 and written in the storage unit 52 of the user terminal device 5. The program 52a may be provided in a form of distribution via a network, or in a form of being recorded in the recording medium 98.

[0033] The communication unit 53 communicates with various devices via a network N including the Internet, a mobile phone communication network, a wireless LAN, etc. In the present embodiment, the communication unit 53 communicates with the power consumption estimation server device 4 via the network N. The communication unit 53 transmits data provided by the processing unit 51 to other devices, and provides data received from other devices to the processing unit 51.

[0034] The display unit 54 is configured using a liquid crystal display or the like, and displays various images, characters, and the like based on the processing of the processing unit 51.

[0035] The operation unit 55 receives a user's operation and notifies the processing unit 51 of the received operation. For example, the operation unit 55 receives a user's operation through an input device such as a mechanical button or a touch panel provided on the surface of the display unit 54. For example, the operation unit 55 may be an input device such as a mouse and a keyboard, and these input devices may be configured to be detachable from the user terminal device 5.

[0036] In the user terminal device 5 according to this embodiment, the processing unit 51 reads and executes the program 52a stored in the storage unit 52, whereby the display processing unit 51a, the input receiving unit 51b, and the like are realized as software functional units in the processing unit 51. Note that the program 52a may be a program dedicated to the information processing system according to this embodiment, or may be a general-purpose program such as an Internet browser or a web browser.

[0037] The display processing unit 51a performs processing to display various characters, images, and the like on the display unit 54. In the present embodiment, the display processing unit 51a performs various screen displays, such as a screen for accepting input of information about electrical appliances installed in the house 1 by the user, and a screen for notifying the estimated power consumption of each electrical appliance in the house 1.

[0038] The input receiving unit 51b receives input of various information by receiving a user's operation on the operation unit 55. The input receiving unit 51b receives an input of information on electrical appliances installed in the house 1 from the user, and transmits the received information to the power consumption estimation server device 4.

[0039] <Basic power consumption determination process> In the information processing system according to the present embodiment, before starting to provide the service to the user, it is necessary to collect information on the power consumption of electrical appliances that may be installed in the house 1 and create a basic power consumption DB 42b. The company providing this service, the company managing and operating the power consumption estimation server device 4, etc., collect information such as power consumption, manufacturer, model number, and year of sale for as many electrical appliances as possible that have already been manufactured and sold. The information may be collected from documents such as catalogs or instruction manuals of the electrical appliances, or may be collected based on electronic information such as the homepage of the electrical appliance or the homepage of a mass retailer. The information may be collected automatically by the power consumption estimation server device 4, or may be collected manually by the company managing and operating the device. In addition to the above-mentioned information on power consumption, the collected information on the electrical appliances preferably includes information that characterizes the electrical appliances, such as the screen size (inches) for televisions, the number of tatami mats that can be accommodated for air conditioners, and the capacity for refrigerators.

[0040] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the basic power consumption DB 42b. The basic power consumption DB 42b according to the present embodiment is a database in which information such as "electrical device (type)", "manufacturer (manufacturing company)", "model number", "manufacturing year", "basic power consumption" and "unit" are stored in association with each other. The "electrical device" is information indicating the type of the electrical device, such as an air conditioner, a television (television receiver), a lighting fixture, or a refrigerator. The "manufacturer" is information on the company that manufactured the electrical device, and is abbreviated as Company A, Company B, etc. in this figure. The "model number" is an identification number given to identify the type (model) of the electrical device. The "manufacturing year" is information indicating the year or period in which the electrical device was manufactured. The "basic power consumption" is the power consumption of the electrical device, and is, for example, the power consumption listed as specifications in a catalog, or a numerical value such as power consumption measured by a company that provides this service. The "unit" is the unit of the numerical value stored as the basic power consumption, and is, for example, a unit such as "W (watt)" or "kW (kilowatt)". The "unit" may be a unit such as [kWh / year] as in the illustrated refrigerator, that is, a unit indicating the amount of power consumed in a predetermined period of time.

[0041] The power consumption estimation server device 4, which has the illustrated basic power consumption DB 42b in the storage unit 42, can accurately determine the basic power consumption of an electrical appliance in the house 1 by acquiring information such as the manufacturer and model number of the electrical appliance from the user. However, there may be cases where the user does not know detailed information such as the model number of the electrical appliance. Therefore, in the information processing system according to the present embodiment, the power consumption estimation server device 4 has a second basic power consumption DB 42b for determining the basic power consumption of an electrical appliance about which the user does not know detailed information such as the model number.

[0042] Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the second basic power consumption DB 42b. The second basic power consumption DB 42b according to the present embodiment is a database in which information such as "electrical equipment", "information 1", "information 2", "basic power consumption" and "unit" is stored in association with each other. Among these, "electrical equipment", "basic power consumption" and "unit" are the same as the information stored in the basic power consumption DB 42b shown in Fig. 4. "Electrical equipment" is information indicating the type of electrical equipment such as a refrigerator, a television, a lighting fixture, and an air conditioner. "Basic power consumption" is a numerical value indicating the power consumption of the electrical equipment. "Unit" is the unit of the numerical value stored as basic power consumption.

[0043] The "information 1" and "information 2" in the second basic power consumption DB 42b are information that characterizes an electric appliance, and predetermined information is stored for each type of electric appliance. In this example, the two pieces of information, "information 1" and "information 2", are stored in the second basic power consumption DB 42b, but the number of pieces of information may be one or more than two. For example, for a refrigerator, which is an "electrical appliance", "information 1" is not used, and "information 2" stores information about the range of the manufacturing year of the refrigerator. For example, for a television, which is an "electrical appliance", "information 1" stores information about whether the television is a plasma or liquid crystal type, and "information 2" stores information about the range of the television screen size. For example, for a lighting fixture, which is an "electrical appliance", "information 1" stores information about whether the lighting fixture is a ceiling light, a fluorescent light (ring), an incandescent light, an LED (ball), or the like, and "information 2" stores information about the manufacturing date, the area (number of tatami mats), the wattage, and the like. For example, with regard to an air conditioner, which is an "electrical equipment," "information 1" stores information regarding the combination of whether the house 1 in which the air conditioner will be installed is made of wood or reinforced concrete, and whether the air conditioner will be used for cooling or heating, and "information 2" stores information regarding the range of room sizes that the air conditioner can accommodate.

[0044] The company or the like providing this service creates the second basic power consumption DB 42b shown in Fig. 5 in advance and stores it in the storage unit 42 of the power consumption estimation server device 4. The second basic power consumption DB 42b can be created, for example, by the following procedure. Note that the process of creating the basic power consumption DB 42b may be performed automatically by a device such as the power consumption estimation server device 4, or may be performed manually by the service provider or the like.

[0045] The service provider creates a regression model based on information about electrical appliances collected to create the basic power consumption DB 42b shown in FIG. 4, and calculates the power consumption using this regression model. The service provider creates a linear regression model using power consumption as a response variable and various information about electrical appliances as explanatory variables. For example, in the case of an air conditioner, the service provider creates a linear regression model that predicts the power consumption using cooling capacity, heating capacity, or number of tatami mats that can be used. After that, the service provider selects explanatory variables that have a large effect on the change in power consumption based on the created linear regression model. In the linear regression model, when a standardized variable is used, a variable with a large regression coefficient is selected as an explanatory variable that has a large effect. As a result, for example, information such as the number of tatami mats that can be used for an air conditioner and the year of manufacture for a refrigerator can be selected as an explanatory variable. Note that the selection of information about electrical appliances that have a large effect on the change in power consumption is not limited to the above method using a linear regression model, and any model that can clarify the degree to which an explanatory variable affects a response variable can be used. For example, various methods such as a method using a random forest can be adopted.

[0046] Next, the service provider etc. creates clusters using the objective variable and the selected explanatory variables. First, the service provider etc. creates a scatter diagram with, for example, the power consumption corresponding to the objective variable on the vertical axis and the information corresponding to the selected explanatory variables on the horizontal axis. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a scatter diagram. The illustrated scatter diagram is an example in which the correspondence between the model year (manufacturing year) of a refrigerator and the power consumption is mapped on the scatter diagram based on information about a refrigerator among electric appliances. The service provider etc. classifies the refrigerators into a plurality of clusters according to the model year or the model year range based on the bias of many points mapped on the scatter diagram. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the refrigerators are classified into three clusters, clusters 1 to 3. Note that the method of creating clusters is not limited to the above-mentioned arbitrary determination method based on the bias of points, etc., and various methods may be adopted, such as a method of creating clusters by performing unsupervised learning using the power consumption and selected variables.

[0047] The clusters classified in this way correspond to the electrical appliances in one row shown in the second basic power consumption DB 42b shown in Fig. 5. That is, in the second basic power consumption DB 42b shown in Fig. 5, refrigerators are classified into two clusters based on the year of manufacture, televisions are classified into four clusters based on their type and size, lighting fixtures are classified into six clusters, and air conditioners are classified into eight clusters. The service provider or the like classifies each electrical appliance into a cluster in the same manner, calculates an average value of power consumption within the cluster, and sets the calculated average value as the basic power consumption of the class. The service provider or the like creates the second basic power consumption DB 42b by associating information corresponding to the explanatory variables used for classifying the clusters with the basic power consumption of the cluster, and stores the second basic power consumption DB 42b in advance in the storage unit 42 of the power consumption estimation server device 4.

[0048] The power consumption estimation server device 4, which has the second basic power consumption DB 42b shown in Figure 5 in the memory unit 42, can obtain information from the user, such as the number of tatami mats that the device can accommodate in the case of an air conditioner, even if the user does not know detailed information about the electrical appliances in the house 1, such as model numbers, and can determine which of the air conditioner clusters the obtained information corresponds to to obtain the basic power consumption from the second basic power consumption DB 42b.

[0049] In the information processing system according to the present embodiment, before starting to provide a service to a user, the power consumption estimation server device 4 inquires of the user about information on a plurality of electrical appliances installed in the house 1 for which the power consumption is to be estimated. The user inputs as much detailed information as possible about the electrical appliances in the house 1, such as model numbers, using the user terminal device 5, and inputs as much information as possible about electrical appliances for which detailed information is not available. The power consumption estimation server device 4, which has acquired information about the electrical appliances input by the user from the user terminal device 5, acquires basic power consumption from the basic power consumption DB 42b shown in FIG. 4 for electrical appliances for which detailed information such as model numbers has been acquired. For electrical appliances for which detailed information cannot be acquired, the power consumption estimation server device 4 determines a corresponding cluster from the second basic power consumption DB 42b shown in FIG. 5, and acquires the basic power consumption associated with this cluster.

[0050] 7 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a basic power consumption determination process performed by the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment. The information acquisition unit 41b of the processing unit 41 of the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment transmits a questionnaire about the electrical appliances installed in the house 1 to the user terminal device 5 of the user who starts using the service (step S1). The user terminal device 5 receiving this transmits an inquiry to the user about information such as the model number or manufacturing year of the electrical appliance, accepts an input of the user's answer to the inquiry, and transmits the accepted answer to the power consumption estimation server device 4. The information acquisition unit 41b of the power consumption estimation server device 4 receives the answer to the questionnaire from the user terminal device 5 (step S2).

[0051] Next, the information acquisition unit 41b selects one electrical device from among the multiple electrical devices that are determined to be installed in the house 1 based on the response (step S3). The information acquisition unit 41b determines whether or not a model number of the selected electrical device has been obtained (step S4). If the model number has been obtained (S4: YES), the information acquisition unit 41b refers to the basic power consumption DB 42b of the storage unit 42 to acquire the basic power consumption corresponding to the model number (step S5), and proceeds to step S8.

[0052] If the model number is not obtained (S4: NO), the information acquiring unit 41b performs cluster classification to determine which of a plurality of clusters predefined for this type of electrical device the selected electrical device corresponds to (step S6).The information acquiring unit 41b refers to the basic power consumption DB 42b of the storage unit 42 to acquire the basic power consumption corresponding to the cluster classified in step S6 (step S7), and proceeds to step S8.

[0053] The information acquisition unit 41b stores the information about the electrical appliance selected in step S3, together with the basic power consumption determined in step S5 or S7, in the house information DB 42c of the storage unit 42 as information about the electrical appliances installed in the house 1 (step S8). The information acquisition unit 41b determines whether the process of determining the basic power consumption has been completed for all electrical appliances included in the response from the user (step S9). If the process of determining the basic power consumption has not been completed for at least one electrical appliance (S9: NO), the information acquisition unit 41b returns to the process in step S3, selects another electrical appliance, and repeats the above process. If the process of determining the basic power consumption has been completed for all electrical appliances (S9: YES), the information acquisition unit 41b ends the process.

[0054] Furthermore, when information about electrical appliances cannot be acquired from a user, for example, when the user does not answer some or all of the questions in a questionnaire, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may estimate the electrical appliances installed in the user's house 1 and their power consumption. In this embodiment, the power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates that basic home appliances such as an air conditioner, a television, lighting, and a refrigerator are owned by the user and installed in the house 1. Note that the method of estimating the electrical appliances installed in the house 1 is not limited to the above method, and any method may be adopted.

[0055] The power consumption estimation server device 4 uses predetermined default values ​​for the power consumption of these basic home appliances. The power consumption estimation server device 4 can calculate an average value of all clusters for each electrical appliance using, for example, the second basic power consumption DB 42b shown in Fig. 5, and set the calculated average value as the default value for the power consumption of the basic appliance. Note that the method of determining the default value for the power consumption of an electrical appliance is not limited to the above method, and any method may be adopted.

[0056] <Standby power consumption estimation process> In the information processing system according to the present embodiment, before starting to provide a service to a user, a process of estimating the standby power amount of an electric appliance installed in a house 1 is performed. When a request to use the service is given, the power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires information on the power consumption amount for a predetermined period for the target house 1 from the power company server device 3. For example, when estimating the standby power amount based on information on the power consumption amount for one month as the predetermined period, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may acquire information for the past one month from the time when the user requested to use the service from the power company server device 3. When the information for the past one month cannot be acquired because one month has not passed since the installation of the smart meter 2, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may estimate the standby power amount, for example, after one month of information has been accumulated, and start providing the service to the user. Alternatively, for example, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may start providing the service to the user using a default value for the standby power amount until one month of information is accumulated, estimate the standby power amount after one month of information is accumulated, and continue providing the service by changing the standby power amount from the default value to the estimated value.

[0057] The power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates the standby power consumption in the house 1 when the information on the power consumption for a predetermined period is obtained. The power consumption information is information transmitted by the smart meter 2 once every 30 minutes, and thus includes 48 measured values ​​of the power consumption per day. If the predetermined period is one month (30 days), the power consumption estimation server device 4 obtains information on 48×30=1440 measured values ​​of the power consumption. The power consumption estimation server device 4 extracts, for example, three values, the smallest, second smallest, and third smallest, from the 48 measured values ​​of the power consumption for each day in the predetermined period. If the predetermined period is one month (30 days), 3×30=90 values ​​are extracted. The power consumption estimation server device 4 obtains the mode (the value that is most frequently included) from the extracted values, and obtains a value of ±α (for example, 0.1) with respect to the mode for one month and counts the number of such values. Thereafter, the power consumption estimation server device 4 calculates the standby power consumption based on the following formula, and estimates the calculated value as the standby power consumption of the house 1.

[0058] (Standby power consumption)=(A1×N1+A2×N2+A3×N3) / (N1+N2+N3) A1: (mode - α) N1: Number of (mode - α) A2: The most frequent value N2: Number of most frequent values A3: (Modified value + α) N3: Number of (mode + α)

[0059] 8 is a flowchart showing the procedure of standby power amount estimation processing performed by the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment. The standby power amount estimation unit 41c of the processing unit 41 of the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment acquires information on the power consumption measured by the smart meter 2 for the target house 1 for a predetermined period, such as one month or one year, from the power company server device 3 (step S21). The standby power amount estimation unit 41c extracts the minimum value, the second smallest value, and the third smallest value of the power consumption for 30 minutes per day from the acquired information on the power consumption for the predetermined period (step S22).

[0060] The standby power amount estimation unit 41c acquires the most frequent value from among the multiple power consumption values ​​extracted in step S22 (step S23). The standby power amount estimation unit 41c also acquires a value of the most frequent value ±α (step S24). The standby power amount estimation unit 41c calculates the standby power amount based on the most frequent value acquired in step S23 and the value of the most frequent value ±α acquired in step S24 (step S25). The standby power amount estimation unit 41c stores the standby power amount calculated in step S25 in the house information DB 42c of the storage unit 42 (step S26), and ends the process.

[0061] 9 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of the house information DB 42c. The house information DB 42c according to this embodiment is a database in which information such as "house ID", "electrical appliance information 1" ... "electrical appliance information N", "standby power amount", and "user terminal ID" are stored in association with each other. The "house ID" is identification information uniquely assigned to the house 1. However, instead of the "house ID" for identifying the house 1, for example, an ID for identifying the smart meter 2 may be used.

[0062] "Electrical appliance information 1"..."Electrical appliance information N" is information about electrical appliances installed in the house 1, and the number of electrical appliances for which information is registered may vary for each house 1. Each "electrical appliance information" includes information about, for example, "electrical appliance" and "basic power consumption." "Electrical appliance" is information about the type of electrical appliance, such as an air conditioner or a television. "Basic power consumption" is the basic power consumption determined from the model number or cluster of this electrical appliance by processing the flowchart shown in Figure 7.

[0063] "Standby power amount" is the total standby power amount of multiple electric appliances installed in this house 1, and is the standby power amount estimated by the processing of the flowchart shown in Fig. 8. "User terminal ID" is identification information uniquely assigned to a user terminal device 5 owned by a user residing in this house 1. However, instead of the "user terminal ID" that identifies the user terminal device 5, it may be, for example, a unique user ID that is uniquely assigned to a user, and it may be any information that can determine the destination to which the power consumption estimation result, etc. is to be transmitted.

[0064] The power consumption estimation server device 4 stores necessary information in the house information DB 42c based on the user's responses to the questionnaire, the basic power consumption of each electric appliance determined based on the responses, and the standby power consumption estimated for the house 1.

[0065] <Presumption of Use> In the information processing system according to the present embodiment, the power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires information on the amount of power consumption for one day regarding the house 1 to be processed from the power company server device 3, for example, once a day, and estimates the amount of power consumption for one day of each electrical appliance installed in the house 1. The smart meter 2 installed in the house 1 transmits the measured value of the total power consumption of the house 1 to the power company server device 3 once every 30 minutes, so that the information on the amount of power consumption for one day of one house 1 acquired by the power consumption estimation server device 4 from the power company server device 3 includes 48 measured values ​​of the total power consumption. In order to estimate the amount of power consumption for each electrical appliance in one day, the power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates every 30 minutes whether each electrical appliance installed in the house 1 was used (whether it was in operation or not, whether it was turned on or not) based on the measured value of the total power consumption for each 30 minutes.

[0066] The power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates whether each electrical appliance is in use based on the total power consumption acquired from the power company server device 3, the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance stored in the house information DB 42c, and the conditions stored in the condition information DB 42d. An example of the conditions stored in the condition information DB 42d will be described below. The condition information DB 42d may store different conditions for each electrical appliance. An example of the conditions for three types of electrical appliances, an air conditioner, a lighting fixture, and a television, will be described below. These conditions are examples, and more complex expressions can be used depending on the combination of electrical appliances to be used to estimate with better accuracy. For example, the nighttime hours and the main use times of the appliances can be calculated using values ​​of data input by the user. The condition information DB 42d stores various conditions related to electrical appliances other than these, but the description will be omitted in this embodiment.

[0067] (1) Conditions that assume air conditioner (cooling) is in use Daytime (6am - 5pm) Total power consumption - standby power consumption - basic power consumption of air conditioner > 0, and the temperature is 26°C or higher Nighttime hours (12am - 5am, 6pm - 11am) Total power consumption - standby power consumption - basic power consumption of lighting equipment - basic power consumption of air conditioner > 0, and the temperature is 26°C or higher

[0068] (2) Conditions under which lighting equipment is assumed to be in use Nighttime hours (0:00-5:00, 18:00-11:00) and total power consumption - standby power consumption - basic power consumption of lighting fixtures ≧ 0

[0069] (3) Conditions that presume television use Daytime (6am - 5pm) Total power consumption - Standby power consumption - Basic power consumption of TV>0 Nighttime hours (12am - 5am, 6pm - 11am) Total power consumption - Standby power consumption - Basic power consumption of lighting equipment - Basic power consumption of television>0

[0070] The basic power consumption of each electrical appliance is calculated based on the basic power consumption stored in the basic power consumption DB 42b or the house information DB 42c and the estimated time. For example, if the basic power consumption is 100 [kW] and the estimated time is 30 minutes (0.5 [h]), the basic power consumption is 50 [kWh]. The measured value of the smart meter 2 stored in the power company server device 3 is provided with information on the measurement date and time, and the power consumption acquired by the power consumption estimation server device 4 from the power company server device 3 is provided with information on the measurement date and time, and the power consumption estimation server device 4 judges the daytime time zone, nighttime time zone, etc. based on the information on the measurement date and time. The power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires information such as the temperature of the estimated time from, for example, a server device of the Meteorological Agency or a weather forecasting company.

[0071] In each of the above conditions, the total power consumption is the power consumption measured by the smart meter 2 of the house 1. However, the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the present embodiment estimates whether or not the electrical appliances installed in the house 1 have been used by using the above conditions in order of the largest basic power consumption. For example, if the order of basic power consumption is air conditioner>lighting device>television, the power consumption estimation server device 4 applies the above conditions to the air conditioner, lighting device, and television in that order to estimate whether or not they have been used. When the estimation process is performed in this order and it is estimated that the air conditioner has been used, for example, the power consumption estimation server device 4 determines the condition for the next lighting device by subtracting the basic power consumption of the air conditioner from the total power consumption as a new total power consumption. That is, the power consumption estimation server device 4 determines whether or not each electrical appliance is used by repeatedly performing condition determination in order of the electrical appliance with the largest basic power consumption while updating the total power consumption by subtracting the basic power consumption of the electrical appliance estimated to have been used from the total power consumption measured by the smart meter 2.

[0072] For example, suppose that air conditioner power consumption = 600 kWh, lighting power consumption = 120 kWh, television power consumption = 100 kWh, and standby power = 10 kWh, and the total power consumption measured by smart meter 2 is 700 kWh. Also, suppose that the time period is daytime, and the temperature is 27°C. In this case, the estimation condition for the air conditioner is met, 700-10-600 = 90 > 0, and it is estimated that the air conditioner was in use. The total power consumption is updated to 700-600 = 100. Next, it is estimated that the lighting fixture was not in use during the daytime due to the above conditions, and the total power consumption is maintained at 100. Next, the estimation condition for the television is not met, 100-10-100 = -10 < 0, and it is estimated that the television was not in use.

[0073] For example, under similar conditions, if it is nighttime, the estimated condition for the air conditioner is 700-10-120-600=-20<0, which is not satisfied, so it is estimated that the air conditioner was not in use, and the total power consumption is maintained at 700. Next, the estimated condition for the lighting fixture is 700-10-120=570>0, which is satisfied, so it is estimated that the lighting fixture was in use. The total power consumption is updated to 700-120=580. Next, the estimated condition for the television is 580-10-100=470>0, which is satisfied, so it is estimated that the television was in use, and the total power consumption is updated to 580-100=480. When determining whether other electrical appliances are in use, the condition determination is made based on the updated total power consumption.

[0074] The above estimation conditions are merely examples and are not limiting. In the above estimation conditions, different conditions are set for daytime and nighttime, but different conditions may be set for days of the week (weekdays and holidays), seasons, or long holiday periods (summer vacation, winter vacation, spring vacation, Obon holiday, New Year's holiday, etc.).

[0075] <Power consumption estimation process> After estimating whether each electrical appliance installed in the house 1 is in use, the power consumption estimation server device 4 performs a process to estimate the power consumption of each electrical appliance. The power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment estimates whether each electrical appliance is in use for the total power consumption for each 30 minutes of the day, and calculates how many hours each electrical appliance was used in a day based on the estimation results. The power consumption estimation server device 4 can calculate the time each electrical appliance was used by calculating "number of times estimated to have been used x 0.5 hours = desired time of use".

[0076] Next, the power consumption estimation server device 4 calculates the daily power consumption of each electrical device based on the estimated time that each electrical device was used and the basic power consumption of each electrical device. The power consumption estimation server device 4 can calculate the power consumption of each electrical device as "estimated time x basic power consumption = daily power consumption".

[0077] 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the power consumption estimation process performed by the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment. The total power consumption acquisition unit 41a of the processing unit 41 of the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment acquires information on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter 2 of the house 1 from the power company server device 3, for example, once a day (step S31). The information acquired by the total power consumption acquisition unit 41a at this time includes the values ​​measured by the smart meter 2 every 30 minutes for one day.

[0078] Next, the usage estimation unit 41d of the processing unit 41 acquires the total power consumption for 30 minutes from the information on the total power consumption for one day acquired in step S31 (step S32). The usage estimation unit 41d reads out an estimated condition for one electric device installed in the house 1 from the condition information DB 42d of the storage unit 42 (step S33). The usage estimation unit 41d judges whether the condition read out in step S33 is satisfied (step S34). If the condition is satisfied (S34: YES), the usage estimation unit 41d estimates that the electric device is in use (step S35), updates the total power consumption by subtracting the basic power consumption of the electric device from the total power consumption (step S36), and proceeds to step S38. If the condition is not satisfied (S34: NO), the usage estimation unit 41d estimates that the electric device is not in use (step S37), and proceeds to step S38.

[0079] The usage estimation unit 41d judges whether or not the estimation of the use status of all the electric devices installed in the house 1 has been completed (step S38). If the estimation of the use status of at least one electric device has not been completed (S38: NO), the usage estimation unit 41d returns to the process of step S33, reads out the estimation conditions for another electric device, and repeats the judgment process. If the estimation of the use status of all the electric devices has been completed (S38: YES), the usage estimation unit 41d further judges whether or not the estimation of the use status every 30 minutes has been completed for one day (step S39). If the estimation for one day has not been completed (S39: NO), the usage estimation unit 41d returns to the process of step S32, and repeats the process for another 30 minutes.

[0080] When the estimation for one day is completed (S39: YES), the usage estimation unit 41d calculates the usage time of each electrical device in one day based on the estimation result of whether each electrical device is used every 30 minutes (step S40). Next, the power consumption estimation unit 41e of the processing unit 41 calculates the power consumption of each electrical device in one day based on the usage time of each electrical device and the basic power consumption of each electrical device (step S41), and ends the process.

[0081] <Refrigerator power consumption> Since it is considered that a refrigerator is always in use and always operates with its power turned on, in this embodiment, the power consumption of the refrigerator can be included in the standby power consumption. The power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment calculates the daily power consumption of the refrigerator using a calculation formula that is predetermined for each refrigerator or for each cluster of refrigerators. For example, when the average daily temperature is T [°C] and the annual power consumption of the refrigerator is P [kWh / year], the calculation formula is predetermined as the daily power consumption of the refrigerator p [kWh] = a × T + b × P, and the values ​​of constants a and b that constitute this calculation formula for each refrigerator or for each cluster are stored in the power consumption estimation server device 4.

[0082] The above formula is derived based on information on the annual power consumption of the refrigerator (e.g., catalog value or actual measured value, etc.) and the average temperature per day for a year, by weighting each day for the year by the average temperature, calculating the power consumption for each day by apportioning the annual power consumption to each weighted day, and creating a regression formula using the calculated power consumption for each day and the average temperature.

[0083] In this embodiment, a refrigerator is given as an example of an electrical appliance that operates constantly, but if there are other electrical appliances that operate constantly, the daily power consumption may be estimated in a similar manner. For example, the power consumption of a warm water washing toilet seat can be estimated in a similar manner. In addition, if the electrical appliance operates constantly and the power consumption does not change or changes little in response to changes in temperature, the daily power consumption may be treated as a constant value.

[0084] <Display of Estimation Results> The power consumption estimation server device 4, which has estimated the power consumption of each electrical appliance in the house 1, transmits the estimation result to a user terminal device 5 of a user or the like residing in the house 1. The transmission of the estimation result from the power consumption estimation server device 4 to the user terminal device 5 may be, for example, a so-called push-type transmission in which the power consumption estimation server device 4 spontaneously transmits the estimation result, or may be, for example, a so-called pull-type transmission in which the power consumption estimation server device 4 transmits information in response to a request from the user terminal device 5. The user terminal device 5, which has received information regarding the estimation result from the power consumption estimation server device 4, displays the received information on a display unit 54 to notify the user of the estimation result of the power consumption of the electrical appliances.

[0085] 11 and 12 are schematic diagrams showing an example of the display of the estimated power consumption by the user terminal device 5 according to the present embodiment. The display example shown in FIG. 11 shows the estimated power consumption of the electrical appliances installed in the house 1 in the form of a bar graph. In this example, a title character string of "Power Consumption by Household Appliance" and a character string of "August 1, 2020" as the date of the estimation are displayed at the top of the screen. Below these character strings, the user terminal device 5 displays information on the air conditioner, refrigerator, lighting, electric heated toilet seat, and other electrical appliances installed in the house 1 in a vertical line. As information on each electrical appliance, the user terminal device 5 displays an icon imitating the appearance of the electrical appliance, an estimated value of the power consumption in units of Wh, a numerical value obtained by converting the power consumption into an electricity fee, and a horizontal bar whose length is a schematic representation of the power consumption.

[0086] The display example shown in FIG. 12 shows the same information in a pie chart. In this example, the title character string of "Power consumption by home appliance" and the character string of "August 1, 2020" as the date of the estimation are displayed at the top of the screen. Below these character strings, the user terminal device 5 displays a pie chart showing the percentage of the power consumption by the air conditioner, refrigerator, lighting, electric heated toilet seat, and other electric appliances in the house 1 to the total power consumption of the house 1. Below this pie chart, the user terminal device 5 displays information about the air conditioner, refrigerator, lighting, electric heated toilet seat, and other electric appliances installed in the house 1 in a matrix. As information about each electric appliance, the user terminal device 5 displays an icon that imitates the appearance of the electric appliance, an estimated value of the power consumption in Wh, and a value obtained by converting the power consumption into an electricity fee.

[0087] The user terminal device 5 may display either one of the screens shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12, or may display both. When the user terminal device 5 displays both the screens shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12, the screen to be displayed may be switched in response to, for example, a user operation. Furthermore, the user terminal device 5 may provide the user with the estimated power consumption amount in a screen configuration different from that shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12.

[0088] In addition, in this embodiment, the power consumption estimation server device 4 notifies the user of the estimated power consumption for one day, but this is not limited to this, and the user may be notified of the power consumption for any period, such as one week or one month.

[0089] The power consumption estimation server device 4 may provide the user with information comparing the estimation result for the target house 1 with the estimation result for other houses 1 based on the result of estimating the power consumption of the electric appliances for the multiple houses 1. For example, the power consumption of the air conditioner in a specific month can be displayed on the user terminal device 5 side by side with the power consumption of the air conditioner in the target house 1 and the power consumption of the air conditioner in the house 1 with low or high power consumption. Furthermore, the amount of power consumption of the user can be grasped by comparing with the average power consumption of the same number of people in the household. For example, the power consumption of the air conditioners in the multiple houses 1 can be ranked by high or low power consumption, and the ranking of the power consumption of the target house 1 can be displayed on the user terminal device 5. The power consumption estimation server device 4 may provide such comparative information for electric appliances other than the air conditioner, and may provide comparative information for the power consumption of the entire house 1.

[0090] Furthermore, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may notify the user of an electrical appliance whose power consumption has increased or decreased beyond a threshold value, in comparison with the estimated power consumption result from a predetermined period ago.

[0091] <Multiple unit processing> A house 1 may have a plurality of electrical appliances of the same type or the same type. For example, if the house 1 has two air conditioners, the power consumption estimation server device 4 first determines whether the two air conditioners are being used simultaneously based on the above conditions. At this time, it is determined whether the "basic power consumption of the air conditioner" satisfies the condition as the "total value of the basic power consumption of the two air conditioners". If it is determined that the two air conditioners are not being used simultaneously, the power consumption estimation server device 4 gives priority to the air conditioner with the larger basic power consumption and determines whether the air conditioner is being used one by one based on the above conditions. If it is determined that the air conditioner with the larger basic power consumption is not being used, the power consumption estimation server device 4 determines whether the air conditioner with the smaller basic power consumption is being used.

[0092] Similarly, when three or more air conditioners are installed in the house 1, the power consumption estimation server device 4 first determines whether three air conditioners are being used simultaneously, and if not, determines whether two are being used simultaneously, giving priority to the one with the largest basic power consumption. The power consumption estimation server device 4 creates a pair of two air conditioners in descending order of basic power consumption, and determines whether these two air conditioners satisfy the conditions. When two air conditioners are not being used simultaneously, the power consumption estimation server device 4 determines whether only one is being used, giving priority to the one with the largest basic power consumption. When four or more air conditioners are installed, the use of the air conditioners can be estimated in a similar manner. The use of electrical appliances other than air conditioners can also be estimated in a similar manner.

[0093] When there are multiple electrical appliances, the determination may be made not in descending order of basic power consumption, but, for example, in an order based on a predetermined priority. For example, when multiple air conditioners are installed in house 1, the air conditioner installed in the living room of house 1 may be given high priority, and it may be determined whether the air conditioner in the living room has been used first. This priority may be set not only among electrical appliances of the same type, but also across types of electrical appliances. For example, the priority may be set as follows: air conditioner in living room > lighting fixtures in living room > television in living room > air conditioner in bedroom...

[0094] <Summary> The power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the present embodiment configured as described above acquires information on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter 2 installed in the house 1 from the power company server device 3. The power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires information on one or more electrical appliances installed in the house 1 by acquiring responses to a questionnaire or the like from a user at a user terminal device 5. Based on the acquired information, the power consumption estimation server device 4 acquires the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance from a basic power consumption DB 42b in which the electrical appliances and their basic power consumptions are stored in association with each other. The power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates whether each electrical appliance is in use, and estimates the power consumption of each electrical appliance based on the total power consumption of the house 1, the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance, and whether each electrical appliance is in use. This makes it possible to estimate the power consumption of each electrical appliance based on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter 2 without installing an appliance for measuring the power consumption of each electrical appliance in the house 1, for example, and is expected to facilitate the introduction of a system for estimating the power consumption of each electrical appliance in the house 1.

[0095] Furthermore, the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment classifies electric appliances for which detailed information such as model numbers is not available into clusters, and acquires the basic power consumption of each electric appliance installed in the house 1 from a basic power consumption DB 42b in which clusters and the basic power consumptions of electric appliances belonging to these clusters are stored in association with each other. This makes it possible to estimate the power consumption of an electric appliance even if the user does not know detailed information such as the model number of the electric appliance.

[0096] Moreover, the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment estimates standby power consumed by one or more electric appliances installed in the house 1. The power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates whether each electric appliance is in use or not based on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter 2, the basic power consumption of each electric appliance, and the estimated standby power consumption. The power consumption estimation server device 4 is expected to improve the accuracy of the estimation by performing the estimation taking into account the standby power.

[0097] Moreover, the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the present embodiment stores conditions for estimating whether an electric appliance is in use for each type of electric appliance in the condition information DB 42d, and estimates whether an electric appliance is in use based on whether the stored conditions are satisfied. This allows the power consumption estimation server device 4 to estimate whether an electric appliance is in use under appropriate conditions according to the type of electric appliance.

[0098] Furthermore, the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to this embodiment estimates whether or not a certain electrical appliance is being used based on the conditions, the total power consumption, the basic power consumption, the standby power consumption, etc., and when it estimates that the certain electrical appliance is being used, it updates the total power consumption to a value obtained by subtracting the power consumption of the certain electrical appliance from the total power consumption. Thereafter, the power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates whether or not other electrical appliances are being used based on the updated total power consumption. In this way, the power consumption estimation server device 4 can sequentially estimate whether or not a plurality of electrical appliances installed in the house 1 are being used.

[0099] In the present embodiment, the power consumption estimation server device 4 is configured to acquire information on the measured values ​​of the smart meter 2 from the power company server device 3, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may acquire information on the measured values ​​directly from the smart meter 2. Alternatively, for example, an information processing device such as a PC (personal computer) provided in the house 1 may acquire information on the measured values ​​from the smart meter 2 and transmit this information to the power consumption estimation server device 4. Alternatively, for example, instead of the power consumption estimation server device 4, an information processing device in the house 1 may estimate the power consumption. In this case, the information processing device may display the estimation result on its own display unit or the like instead of transmitting the estimation result to the user terminal device 5.

[0100] Furthermore, when the power consumption estimation server device 4 can obtain information that can be used to estimate whether an electrical appliance installed in the house 1 is in use, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may estimate whether the electrical appliance is in use by using the information in combination. For example, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may obtain information such as operation contents received from a remote control (remote controller) that operates the electrical appliance or control signals transmitted to the electrical appliance, and use the information for the estimation. For example, the power consumption estimation server device 4 may inquire in advance of a user as a questionnaire about information such as the number of people living in the house 1, their ages, or family structures, information such as the number of rooms, room sizes, room roles (living room, bedroom, etc.) or floors in the house 1, information on the life patterns of the people living in the house 1, and information on the use patterns of the electrical appliances, and obtain responses from the users to the inquiries and use the information for the estimation.

[0101] The basic power consumption of each electrical appliance may be determined based on the measurement results, for example, by attaching a sensor or the like to the electrical appliance installed in the house 1 for a certain period of time to measure the power consumption or the amount of power consumption. For each type of electrical appliance, the most sold electrical appliance in each manufacturing or sales year may be taken as a representative, and the power consumption of the representative electrical appliance may be taken as the basic power consumption of the electrical appliance of this type in that year.

[0102] In the present embodiment, the electric appliances are described as air conditioners, televisions, lighting equipment, refrigerators, etc., but the electric appliances may be various other appliances. In addition, the conditions for estimating the use or non-use of each electric appliance are given, but these conditions are merely examples and are not limiting. In addition, the database configurations and the information stored in the databases shown in Figures 4 and 5 are merely examples and are not limiting. In addition, the screen displays shown in Figures 11 and 12 are merely examples and are not limiting.

[0103] <Embodiment 2> In the above-described embodiment, the power consumption estimation server device 4 considers the sum of the power consumptions of a plurality of electrical appliances to be the total power consumption. In contrast, the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the second embodiment considers the power consumption of each electrical appliance to be the power consumption of each electrical appliance x usage time x weighting. A method for determining this "weighting" will be described below.

[0104] First, the power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the second embodiment receives feedback information input from the user regarding the time period during which the electrical device is in use, which is estimated by the above-mentioned process of estimating whether or not the electrical device is in use. In detail, the power consumption estimation server device 4 receives information from the user regarding the time period during which the electrical device is estimated to be in use despite not being in use, or the time period during which the electrical device is estimated to be not in use despite being in use.

[0105] Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display of a feedback information reception screen by a user terminal device 5 according to the second embodiment. The power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the second embodiment shows the estimated usage time period for each electrical appliance to the user by displaying the screen shown in Fig. 13 on the user terminal device 5. On the screen shown in the figure, for example, a message "Please select a time when not in use" and an image showing the target electrical appliance (a television in this example) are displayed, and below these, the usage time period of the electrical appliance is shown as a graph. In this example, the graph has time on the horizontal axis, and shows the usage time of the electrical appliance as a line graph and the electricity fee as a bar graph.

[0106] The user uses the operation unit 55 of the user terminal device 5 to perform an input operation to specify a time period during which the television is not in use in this graph. In the illustrated example, the time period from 2:00 AM to 10:30 AM is specified as the time period during which the user is not using the television. The user terminal device 5 accepts the user's input of the time period, and transmits information on the accepted time period to the power consumption estimation server device 4. Note that, although this example shows a configuration in which the user's input is accepted for the time period during which the electrical appliance is not in use, the configuration may also be such that the user's input is accepted for the time period during which the electrical appliance is in use.

[0107] The power consumption estimation server device 4, which acquires information on time periods when an electrical appliance (television) is not in use from the user terminal device 5, performs a process of determining a "weight" for this electrical appliance. Note that the default value of the "weight" for each electrical appliance is "1," and the "weight" for the electrical appliance about which information is obtained from the user is updated from "1" to another value.

[0108] For example, for a date and an electrical appliance for which a graph of the time period of use is presented to a user, the power consumption estimation server device 4 estimates that the daily power consumption is 1000Wh, and the power consumption of the electrical appliance is 80W. The power consumption estimation server device 4 calculates the time during which the electrical appliance was estimated to be in use but was not actually in use, based on information on the time period during which the electrical appliance was not used input by the user. If the unused time is, for example, 5 hours, the power consumption estimation server device 4 calculates the power consumption of 400Wh for the electrical appliance by multiplying the power consumption of 80W and the unused time of 5 hours. The power consumption estimation server device 4 subtracts the calculated power consumption of 400Wh from the estimated daily power consumption of 1000Wh for the electrical appliance to calculate 1000Wh-400Wh=600Wh. The power consumption estimation server device 4 sets the ratio of this value to the original power consumption of 1000Wh, i.e., 600 / 1000=0.6, as the "weight" for the electrical appliance. That is, "weight" = (estimated power consumption - power consumption for unused time) / estimated power consumption.

[0109] Next, the power consumption estimation server device 4 performs a process of determining the "weighting" of electrical appliances other than the electrical appliances for which the "weighting" has been determined by the above process, i.e., electrical appliances for which the user has not input the unused time period.

[0110] For example, it is assumed that the television, whose "weight" has already been determined, accounts for 20% of the total daily power consumption of the entire house 1, and the air conditioner, whose "weight" will be determined next, accounts for 40%. It is also assumed that the estimated daily power consumption of the air conditioner is 10,000 Wh. The power consumption estimation server device 4 calculates the power consumption of the air conditioner when the power consumption of 400 Wh (= 80 W x 5 hours), which corresponds to the time when the television is not used, is apportioned to the electrical appliances other than the television in proportion to the total daily power consumption. In other words, the power consumption estimation server device 4 calculates the apportioned power consumption as 400 Wh x (0.4 / (1-0.2)) = 200 Wh. Next, the power consumption estimation server device 4 calculates 10200Wh by adding the proportionally divided power consumption of 200Wh to the power consumption of the air conditioner of 10000Wh, and sets the ratio of this value to the original power consumption of 10000Wh, i.e., 10200 / 10000=1.02, as the "weight" for the air conditioner. "Weight" = (estimated power consumption + apportioned value of power consumption during unused time) / estimated power consumption.

[0111] The power consumption estimation server device 4 determines the "weight" for electrical appliances other than air conditioners in the same manner, and stores the determined "weight" for each electrical appliance in the storage unit 42. Thereafter, when estimating the power consumption for each electrical appliance, the power consumption estimation server device 4 multiplies the power consumption of each electrical appliance by the usage time of each electrical appliance and the "weight" of each electrical appliance to obtain an estimated power consumption value.

[0112] The power consumption estimation server device 4 according to the second embodiment configured as above acquires information fed back from a user, for example, information about a time period when an electrical appliance is not in use, and calculates a "weight (coefficient)" to be used when calculating an estimated value of the power consumption of the electrical appliance. Based on the calculation result of this "weight," the power consumption estimation server device 4 also calculates "weights" for electrical appliances other than the electrical appliance for which feedback from the user has been received. The power consumption estimation server device 4 stores the calculated "weight" for each electrical appliance, and performs calculations taking the stored "weight" into consideration when estimating the power consumption thereafter. This is expected to improve the accuracy of the estimation of the power consumption of each electrical appliance by the power consumption estimation server device 4.

[0113] Note that the screen configuration shown in Fig. 13 is an example, and is not limited to this. Also, the numerical values ​​of the power consumption amount exemplified in the second embodiment are an example, and are not limited to this.

[0114] Moreover, other configurations of the information processing system according to the second embodiment are similar to those of the information processing system according to the first embodiment, so the same reference numerals are used for the same parts and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0115] The embodiments disclosed herein are illustrative in all respects and should not be considered as limiting. The scope of the present invention is defined by the claims, not by the above meaning, and is intended to include all modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0116] 1 house 2. Smart meters 3. Electric power company server equipment 4. Power consumption estimation server device 5 User terminal equipment 41 Processing section 41a Total power consumption acquisition unit 41b Information acquisition section 41c Standby power estimation unit 41d Usage estimation section 41e Power consumption estimator 42 Storage section 42a Server program 42b Basic power consumption DB 42c House Information DB 42d Condition information DB 43 Communications Department 51 Processing section 51a Display processing unit 51b Input reception section 52 Storage section 52a Program 53 Communications Department 54 Display section 55 Operation section 98,99 Recording media

Claims

1. An information processing device, The total amount of power consumed measured by the smart meter is acquired, Obtain information about electrical equipment, Based on the acquired information, acquire the basic power consumption of each electrical device connected to the smart meter from a first database in which identification information of the electrical device and the basic power consumption of the electrical device are stored in association with each other; If the information on the electrical appliance cannot be obtained, an electrical appliance used in the house is estimated; Based on the estimated electric appliances, the basic power consumption of each electric appliance is obtained from a second database in which the type of electric appliance and the basic power consumption amount of the electric appliance are stored in association with each other; Estimate whether each electrical device is in use or not, Estimating the power consumption of each electrical device based on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter, the basic power consumption of each electrical device, and whether or not each electrical device is in use; How to estimate power consumption.

2. The total power consumption is a value measured by the smart meter per unit time, Estimating the power consumption of each electrical device per unit time; The power consumption estimation method according to claim 1 .

3. Classify electrical equipment into clusters, acquiring the basic power consumption of each electrical device from the second database in which the cluster and the basic power consumption of the electrical devices belonging to the cluster are stored in association with each other; The power consumption estimation method according to claim 1 or 2.

4. Estimate the standby power consumption of electrical equipment, Estimating whether each electrical appliance is in use or not based on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter, the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance, and the standby power consumption. The power consumption estimation method according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. storing conditions for estimating whether or not an electrical device is in use for each type of electrical device; estimating whether each electrical appliance is in use or not based on the stored conditions, the total power consumption measured by the smart meter, the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance, and the standby power consumption; The power consumption estimation method according to claim 4 .

6. Estimating whether or not an electrical appliance is in use based on the stored conditions, the total power consumption measured by the smart meter, the basic power consumption of each electrical appliance, and the standby power consumption; When it is estimated that the one electrical appliance has been used, the total power consumption is updated to a value obtained by subtracting the power consumption of the one electrical appliance from the total power consumption; Based on the stored conditions, the updated total power consumption, the basic power consumption of each electrical device, and the standby power consumption, it is estimated whether or not other electrical devices are in use. The power consumption estimation method according to claim 5 .

7. On the computer, The total amount of power consumed measured by the smart meter is acquired, Obtain information about electrical equipment, Based on the acquired information, acquire the basic power consumption of each electrical device connected to the smart meter from a first database in which identification information of the electrical device and the basic power consumption of the electrical device are stored in association with each other; If the information on the electrical appliance cannot be obtained, an electrical appliance used in the house is estimated; Based on the estimated electric appliances, the basic power consumption of each electric appliance is obtained from a second database in which the type of electric appliance and the basic power consumption amount of the electric appliance are stored in association with each other; Estimate whether each electrical device is in use or not, The power consumption of each electrical device is estimated based on the total power consumption measured by the smart meter, the basic power consumption of each electrical device, and whether or not each electrical device is in use. A computer program that executes a process.

8. a total power consumption acquisition unit that acquires the total power consumption measured by the smart meter; an information acquisition unit that acquires information about the electrical device; a first basic power consumption acquiring unit that acquires the basic power consumption of each electrical device connected to the smart meter from a first database in which identification information of the electrical device and the basic power consumption of the electrical device are stored in association with each other based on the acquired information; an electrical appliance estimation unit that estimates an electrical appliance being used in the house when information about the electrical appliance cannot be acquired; a second basic power consumption acquiring unit that acquires the basic power consumption of each electrical device from a second database in which the type of electrical device and the basic power consumption amount of the electrical device are stored in association with each other based on the estimated electrical device; a usage estimation unit that estimates whether each electrical device is in use; and a power consumption estimation unit that estimates the power consumption of each electrical appliance based on a total power consumption measured by the smart meter, a basic power consumption of each electrical appliance, and whether or not each electrical appliance is in use.

Images