Remote leak and failure detection of electrical water heaters through temperature and power monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016178677-A1
Application number	US-201514976540-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 21, 2015
Priority date	Dec 22, 2014
Publication date	Jun 23, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An aggregator is in operative communication with an aggregation of electric water heaters to receive thermostat readings and power consumption readings from the electric water heaters and to communicate demand response dispatch signals to the electric water heaters. The aggregator performs operations including: responding to instructions for a desired demand response by generating the demand response dispatch signals for the electric water heaters so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing the desired demand response; and determining whether an electric water heater of the aggregation has a failure and generating a notification of the failure. The determining including at least one of: determining whether the electric water heater has a failed heating element based on the thermostat readings received from the electric water heater; and determining whether the electric water heater has a water leak based on the power consumption readings received from the electric water heater.

First claim

1 . A demand response system comprising:
an aggregation of electric water heaters, each electric water heater including an electronic controller; an aggregator in operative communication with the electric water heaters via the electronic controllers to receive thermostat readings and power consumption readings from the electric water heaters and to communicate demand response dispatch signals to the electric water heaters, the aggregator comprising an electronic data processing device configured to perform operations including:
responding to instructions for a desired demand response by generating the demand response dispatch signals for the electric water heaters so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing the desired demand response, and
determining whether an electric water heater of the aggregation has a failure and generating a notification of the failure, the determining including at least one of:
determining whether the electric water heater has a failed heating element based on the thermostat readings received from the electric water heater, and
determining whether the electric water heater has a water leak based on the power consumption readings received from the electric water heater.

2 . The demand response system of claim 1 wherein the determining includes determining whether the electric water heater has a failed heating element based on the thermostat readings received from the electric water heater.

3 . The demand response system of claim 2 wherein the electric water heater includes an upper heating element with an upper thermostat and a lower heating element with a lower thermostat, and the determining whether the electric water heater has a failed heating element comprises:
determining whether the lower heating element of the electric water heater has failed based on a difference between the upper thermostat reading and the lower thermostat reading.

4 . The demand response system of claim 2 wherein the electric water heater includes an upper heating element with an upper thermostat and a lower heating element with a lower thermostat, and the determining whether the electric water heater has a failed heating element comprises:
determining that the lower heating element of the electric water heater has failed based at least on whether a difference between the upper thermostat reading and the lower thermostat reading exceeds a threshold.

5 . The demand response system of claim 2 wherein the electric water heater includes an upper heating element with an upper thermostat and a lower heating element with a lower thermostat, and the determining whether the electric water heater has a failed heating element comprises:
determining whether the upper heating element of the electric water heater has failed based on a change of the upper thermostat reading over a predefined time interval.

6 . The demand response system of claim 2 wherein the electric water heater includes an upper heating element with an upper thermostat and a lower heating element with a lower thermostat, and the determining whether the electric water heater has a failed heating element comprises:
determining that the upper heating element of the electric water heater has failed if a change of the upper thermostat reading over a predefined time interval exceeds a threshold.

7 . The demand response system of claim 1 wherein the determining includes determining whether the electric water heater has a water leak based on the power consumption readings received from the electric water heater.

8 . The demand response system of claim 7 wherein determining whether the electric water heater has a water leak comprises:
determining whether the electric water heater has a water leak based on an average energy consumption over a pre-defined time interval determined from the power consumption readings received from the electric water heater.

9 . The demand response system of claim 7 wherein determining whether the electric water heater has a water leak comprises:
determining that the electric water heater has a water leak based if an average energy consumption over a pre-defined time interval determined from the power consumption readings received from the electric water heater exceeds a threshold.

10 . The demand response system of claim 1 wherein responding to instructions for a desired demand response by generating the demand response dispatch signals for the electric water heaters so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing the desired demand response comprises:
receiving the desired demand response comprising an automatic generation control (AGC) signal; and
generating the demand response dispatch signals for the electric water heaters based on the AGC signal so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing frequency regulation.

11 . The demand response system of claim 1 wherein responding to instructions for a desired demand response by generating the demand response dispatch signals for the electric water heaters so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing the desired demand response comprises:
determining constraints on operation of the electric water heaters; and
applying a dispatch algorithm to perform a constrained optimization of the demand response dispatch signals for a next time interval in order to optimally satisfy the desired demand response while obeying the constraints on operation of the electric water heaters.

12 . A demand response system comprising:
an aggregation of loads that draw electricity wherein each electric water heater includes an electronic controller; an aggregator in operative communication with the loads via the electronic controllers to receive load state information from the loads and to communicate demand response dispatch signals to the loads, the aggregator comprising an electronic data processing device configured to perform operations including:
responding to instructions for a desired demand response by generating the demand response dispatch signals for the loads so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing the desired demand response, and
determining a load of the aggregation has a failure based on the load state information received by the aggregator from the loads and generating a notification of the failure.

13 . The demand response system of claim 12 wherein responding to instructions for a desired demand response by generating the demand response dispatch signals for the loads so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing the desired demand response comprises:
receiving the desired demand response comprising an automatic generation control (AGC) signal; and
generating the demand response dispatch signals for the loads based on the AGC signal so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing frequency regulation.

14 . A demand response method operating on an aggregation of electric water heaters wherein each electric water heater includes an electronic controller, the demand response method comprising:
at an aggregator comprising an electronic data processing device, receiving thermostat and power consumption readings from the electric water heaters via the electronic controllers of the electric water heaters; at the aggregator, receiving instructions for a desired demand response; using the aggregator comprising the electronic data processing device, generating demand response dispatch signals for the electric water heaters so as to cause the aggregation to draw electrical power providing the desired demand response; communicating th

Assignees

• Battelle Memorial Institute

Inventors

• Mansouri Seyed A
• Rehbert Eric

Classifications

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• G01K1/026

  arrangements for monitoring a plurality of temperatures, e.g. by multiplexing · CPC title

• G01K1/024 Primary

  for remote indication · CPC title

• G05F1/66

  Regulating electric power · CPC title

• G01R21/133 Primary

  by using digital technique · CPC title