Power Usage Pattern Analysis for Forgotten Appliance Detection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods fail to accurately determine when a consumer has left home, leading to potential forgetting to turn off electrical appliances, resulting in unnecessary power consumption and potential accidents.

Innovation Solution

A forgetting to turn off power detection apparatus that uses past electric energy data to create a usage pattern, determining the consumer's departure time and detecting forgotten appliance turn-off by comparing current energy usage against a calculated threshold, with notifications sent to the consumer via email.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If existing timer off functions or manual monitoring methods are used, then consumers can turn off appliances, but consumers may forget to turn off appliances when leaving home, resulting in power consumption

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveappliance turn-off reliabilityVSAvoidunnecessary power consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by analyzing power consumption patterns before the consumer leaves home. It creates a baseline pattern from historical data and predicts departure time, then monitors for deviations indicating forgotten appliances, enabling preventive detection and notification before significant energy waste occurs.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system establishes feedback loops by continuously monitoring real-time power consumption and comparing it against the learned baseline pattern. When deviations exceed thresholds indicating forgotten appliances, the system sends notifications to the consumer's mobile device, creating a closed-loop feedback system that enables corrective action.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Measurement precision

If additional sensors and monitoring devices are installed in the home, then detection accuracy improves, but installation cost and device complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedeparture time determination accuracyVSAvoidinstallation hardware requirements
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system employs self-service principles by utilizing the existing smart meter and power consumption data that is already being collected for billing purposes. No additional sensors or monitoring hardware are installed in the consumer's home; the system extracts departure information purely from analysis of normal power consumption patterns, making the existing infrastructure serve multiple purposes.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system demonstrates universality by using the smart meter's power consumption data for dual purposes: traditional billing functions and departure detection. The same data infrastructure serves both commercial billing needs and safety monitoring functions, eliminating the need for dedicated detection hardware while achieving accurate departure determination.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Reliability

If real-time monitoring of all appliances is implemented, then forgotten appliances are detected accurately, but system complexity and processing requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveforgotten appliance detection accuracyVSAvoiddata processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies segmentation by dividing the monitoring task into distinct functional modules: baseline pattern creation from historical data, real-time deviation detection, threshold-based anomaly identification, and notification triggering. This modular segmentation simplifies processing by handling each aspect separately rather than analyzing all appliances simultaneously as a single complex system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses partial action by focusing monitoring efforts only on deviations from the established baseline pattern rather than analyzing every appliance state individually. It detects anomalies exceeding specific thresholds, processing only the relevant portions of data that indicate potential forgotten appliances, thereby reducing overall processing complexity while maintaining detection accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP2752968B1Forgotten power switchoff detection device, forgotten power switchoff detection program, forgotten power switchoff detection method, and detection system
Publication Date: 2016.09.21 KK TOSHIBA
  • EP2752968B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2752968B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2752968B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4

AI summary

According to one embodiment, a forgetting to turn off power detection apparatus includes an outgoing determination unit that creates a power usage pattern based on electric energy that is calculated from past electric energy data in a consumer equipment, and determines whether or not a consumer has gone outside based on the power usage pattern. The forgetting to turn off power detection apparatus of the embodiments includes a forgetting to turn off power detection unit that receives current electric energy data in the consumer equipment, and detects forgetting to turn off power of an electric equipment of the consumer equipment based on the received electric energy data when the outgoing determination unit determines that the consumer has gone outside.