Managing electricity usage for an appliance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10359775-B2
Application number	US-201615288191-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2016
Priority date	Jul 26, 2013
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

One embodiment provides a method including: prior to an initial period of operation of an appliance, storing in memory a first set of characteristics of the appliance; during an initial period of operation of the appliance, learning a second set of characteristics of the appliance; during subsequent operation of the appliance: detecting an adverse operating condition of the appliance; and based on the first set of characteristics, the second set of characteristics and the detected adverse operating condition, determining a corrective action to be taken with regard to the appliance, the corrective action comprising at least one of: switching off the appliance and warning a user of the detected adverse operating condition. Other aspects are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
prior to an initial period of operation of an appliance, storing in memory, a first set of characteristics of the appliance;
clustering, using a g-means clustering technique, received power consumption information;
during an initial period of operation of the appliance, learning a second set of characteristics of the appliance, wherein the learning is based at least in part upon the clustered received power consumption information;
during subsequent operation of the appliance:
detecting an adverse operating condition of the appliance; and
based on the first set of characteristics, the second set of characteristics and the detected adverse operating condition, determining a corrective action to be taken with regard to the appliance, the corrective action comprising at least one of: switching off the appliance and warning a user of the detected adverse operating condition.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of characteristics comprises at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of: an appliance category, an operating state of the appliance, and a standby state of the appliance.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second set of characteristics of the appliance comprises at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of: an appliance category, an operating state of the appliance, and a standby state of the appliance.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second set of characteristics is based upon the clustered power consumption information related to the appliance.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the power consumption information is received from a power connector connected to the appliance.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting an adverse operating condition of the appliance comprises detecting deficient power quality.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein detecting deficient power quality comprises sensing power quality parameters.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting an adverse operation condition of the appliance comprises detecting an anomaly selected from the group consisting of: an unknown appliance state, an appliance state transition, and a known appliance malfunctioning mode.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein both the first set of characteristics and the second set of characteristics comprise an appliance category, wherein the appliance category is identified, using a decision tree, based upon operating characteristics of the appliance.

10. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; and
a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code comprising:
computer readable program code that, prior to an initial period of operation of an appliance, stores in memory a first set of characteristics of the appliance;
computer readable program code that clusters, using a g-means clustering technique, received power consumption information;
computer readable program code that, during an initial period of operation of the appliance, learns a second set of characteristics of the appliance, wherein the learning is based at least in part upon the clustered received power consumption information;
computer readable program code that, during subsequent operation of the appliance:
detects an adverse operating condition of the appliance; and
based on the first set of characteristics, the second set of characteristics and the detected adverse operating condition, determines a corrective action to be taken with regard to the appliance, the corrective action comprising at least one of: switching off the appliance and warning a user of the detected adverse operating condition.

11. A computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
computer readable program code that, prior to an initial period of operation of an appliance, stores in memory a first set of characteristics of the appliance;
computer readable program code that clusters, using a g-means clustering technique, received power consumption information;
computer readable program code that, during an initial period of operation of the appliance, learns a second set of characteristics of the appliance, wherein the learning is based at least in part upon the clustered received power consumption information;
computer readable program code that, during subsequent operation of the appliance:
detects an adverse operating condition of the appliance; and
based on the first set of characteristics, the second set of characteristics and the detected adverse operating condition, determines a corrective action to be taken with regard to the appliance, the corrective action comprising at least one of: switching off the appliance and warning a user of the detected adverse operating condition.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the first set of characteristics comprises at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of: an appliance category, an operating state of the appliance, and a standby state of the appliance.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the second set of characteristics of the appliance comprises at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of: an appliance category, an operating state of the appliance, and a standby state of the appliance.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the second set of characteristics is based upon the clustered power consumption information related to the appliance.

15. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the power consumption information is received from a power connector connected to the appliance.

16. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the detecting an adverse operating condition of the appliance comprises detecting deficient power quality.

17. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the detecting an adverse operation condition of the appliance comprises detecting an anomaly selected from the group consisting of: an unknown appliance state, an appliance state transition, and a known appliance malfunctioning mode.

18. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein both the first set of characteristics and the second set of characteristics comprise an appliance category, wherein the appliance category is identified, using a decision tree, based upon operating characteristics of the appliance.

Assignees

• IBM
• Univ Brunei Darussalam

Inventors

• Arya Vijay
• Ganu Tanuja Hrishikesh
• Husain Saiful A
• Kalyanaraman Shivkumar
• Kumar Ashok Pon
• Liyanage Chandratilak De Silva
• Rahayu Dwi
• Seetharamakrishnan Devasenapathi Periagraharam

Classifications

• G05B15/02 Primary

  electric · CPC title

• G05B2219/23316

  Standby, inactive, sleep or active, operation mode · CPC title

• G05B23/0291 Primary

  Switching into safety or degraded mode, e.g. protection and supervision after failure · CPC title

• G05B2219/2642

  Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house · CPC title