Appliance Control System for Autonomous Energy Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing appliance control systems require users to provide individual energy conservation instructions for each electrical appliance, making it cumbersome to reduce total power consumption effectively.

Innovation Solution

An appliance control system that receives a total reduction amount instruction and sends a common control order to each appliance, allowing them to autonomously select and execute energy conservation processes based on stored control information, eliminating the need for user-specific instructions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of energy

If individual energy conservation instructions are provided for each electrical appliance, then the total power consumption can be reduced, but the operation becomes cumbersome and complex for users

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepower consumptionVSAvoiduser operation
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of energyVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The electrical appliance autonomously determines its own energy conservation control process by accessing stored correspondence information between reduction amounts and control processes, eliminating the need for users to manually select specific control actions for each appliance

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary control device that receives a single total reduction amount instruction and automatically distributes appropriate control instructions to multiple appliances based on their individual characteristics and stored correspondence information

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If users select specific energy conservation control processes for each appliance, then the reduction amount can be controlled precisely, but the user is required to know detailed control processes for each appliance

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvereduction amount controlVSAvoidcontrol process complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system pre-stores correspondence information between reduction amounts and energy conservation control processes for each appliance, allowing the control device to automatically select appropriate control actions without requiring users to have knowledge of specific control processes

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The electrical appliance automatically determines and executes the appropriate energy conservation control process by referencing its stored correspondence information, maintaining precise control while eliminating the need for users to understand detailed control processes

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentEP2544333B1Appliance control system
Publication Date: 2019.07.03 PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO LTD
  • EP2544333B1 patent drawingFigure 1~3
  • EP2544333B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5
  • EP2544333B1 patent drawingFigure 6(a)~7

AI summary

The appliance control system includes electrical appliances and an appliance control device. The appliance control device includes a control unit configured to, upon receiving an energy conservation instruction indicative of a total reduction amount, send a control signal including common control order indicative of an individual reduction amount of the power consumption of the electrical appliance to at least one of the electrical appliances based on the total reduction amount. Each electrical appliance includes a functional unit having plural operation states with different power consumption, a control instruction storage unit storing plural control instructions for changing the operation state, an individual storage unit storing individual control information indicative of a correspondence relation between the individual reduction amount and the control instruction, and an operation control unit. Upon receiving the control signal, the operation control unit selects the control instruction associated with the individual reduction amount indicated by the common control order included in the received control signal with reference to the individual control information, and provides the selected control instruction to the functional unit. The functional unit performs an energy conservation control process of changing the operation state in accordance with the received control instruction.