Electric device, power management apparatus and method for controlling the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9235818-B2
Application number	US-201213349677-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2012
Priority date	Feb 1, 2011
Publication date	Jan 12, 2016
Grant date	Jan 12, 2016

Abstract

An electric device includes a storage unit to store operation information for each period, a controller to generate a power consumption pattern on the basis of the operation information for each period, and generate a consulting message on the basis of a power consumption pattern, and a display to display the consulting message. A power management device includes a communication unit to receive operation information for each period from several electric devices, a controller to generate a consulting message for each electric device, generate a power consumption pattern on the basis of operation information for each period, and generate a consulting message on the basis of the power consumption pattern, and a display to display a consulting message for each electric device. The electric device or the power management device informs a user of a power consumption pattern on the basis of operation- and environmental-information for each electric device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electric device comprising:
an artificial information detection unit to detect artificial information regarding user behavior affecting power consumption of the electric device;
an input unit to receive an operation command of the electric device from a user, the operation command including a target operation value;
a storage unit to store operation information for each period, the operation information including the operation command of the electric device and the artificial information;
a controller configured to:
count a number of change times of the target operation value;
generate a power consumption pattern, including an operation pattern generated on the basis of the target operation value and the counted number, on the basis of the operation information for each period;
generate comparison information by comparing the target operation value with a reference operation value; and
generate a consulting message on the basis of the power consumption pattern, the comparison information, and the counted number, the consulting message showing the effect of the operation information on the power consumption pattern of the electric device; and

a display to display the consulting message.

2. The electric device according to claim 1 , wherein the operation information further includes at least one of, power consumption for each period, environmental information, and consumable use information.

3. The electric device according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a power measurement unit to measure power for each period; and
an environmental information detection unit to detect environmental information, wherein the controller generates the operation pattern on the basis of at least one of the environmental information, artificial information, and operation command, and generates the power consumption pattern on the basis of the operation pattern and the power for each period.

4. The electric device according to claim 3 , wherein the operation command further comprises a power on/off signal.

5. The electric device according to claim 3 , wherein the controller determines standby power generated in a standby mode, and indicates the determined standby power in the consulting message.

6. The electric device according to claim 3 , wherein:
the environmental information detection unit includes at least one of an outdoor temperature detection unit to detect an outdoor temperature and an outdoor humidity detection unit to detect outdoor humidity, and
the controller determines power consumption variation on the basis of at least one of the outdoor temperature and the outdoor humidity, and generates a consulting message on the basis of the determined result.

7. The electric device according to claim 3 , wherein:
the artificial information detection unit includes at least one of a door opening/closing detection unit to detect door opening/closing, a storage amount detection unit to detect a storage amount of stored food, and a temperature detection unit to detect a storage temperature of stored food on the basis of a chamber temperature variation, and
the controller generates a consulting message regarding at least one of the number of door opening/closing times, the storage amount, and the storage temperature.

8. The electric device according to claim 3 , wherein:
the artificial information detection unit includes a storage amount detection unit to detect a storage amount of stored objects, and
the controller compares the storage amount with a reference amount, counts the number of operation times when the storage amount is less than the reference amount, and generates the consulting message regarding the counted number of operation times when the storage amount is less than the reference amount.

9. The electric device according to claim 2 , wherein the controller generates the consulting message for each consumable on the basis of the consumable use information.

10. The electric device according to claim 1 , wherein the controller determines power consumption generated when the electric device is driven at the target operation value, compares the determined power consumption with reference power, and generates the consulting message on the basis of the result of comparison.

11. The electric device according to claim 10 , wherein:
the controller compares the measured power consumption with reference power, and determines the amount of excess power when the measured power consumption exceeds the reference power; and
the display displays the calculated excess power using a user-recognizable icon.

12. The electric device according to claim 10 , wherein:
the storage unit further includes a reference operation value corresponding to the reference power, and
the controller generates a recommended value in the consulting message using the reference operation value and the reference power.

13. The electric device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the storage unit further stores the consulting message corresponding to the target operation value,
the controller searches for the consulting message corresponding to the target operation value in the storage unit, and controls display of the searched consulting message.

14. The electric device according to claim 1 , wherein the controller counts the number of target operation value change times, compares the counted number with a reference number, and generates the consulting message on the basis of the result of comparison.

15. The electric device according to claim 1 , wherein the controller counts the number of operation times corresponding to the power on/off signal for a predetermined time, compares the counted number with a reference number, and generates a consulting message on the basis of the result of comparison.

16. A power management device comprising:
a communication unit to receive operation information for each period from several electric devices, the operational information including an operation command of each electric device and artificial information of user behavior, and each operation command comprises a target operation value;
a controller configured to:
receive the target operation values from among the operation commands of each electric device from the user;
count a number of change times of the target operation value for each electric device;
generate a power consumption pattern, including an operation pattern on the basis of the target operation value and the counted number of each electric device, on the basis of the operation information for each period;
generate comparison information by comparing the target operation value with a reference operation value of each electric device;
generate a consulting message for each electric device on the basis of the power consumption pattern, the comparison information, and the counted number of each electric device, the consulting message showing the effect of the operation information on the power consumption pattern of each electric device.

17. The power management device according to claim 16 , wherein the operation information further includes at least one of power consumption for each period, environmental information, and consumable use information.

18. The power management device according to claim 17 , wherein the controller generates the operation pattern on the basis of at least one of the environmental information, the artificial information, and the operation command, and generates the power consumption pattern on the basis of the operation pattern and the power for each period.

Assignees

• Shin Jong Hyun
• Jang Jae Hwi
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shin Jong Hyun
• Jang Jae Hwi

Classifications

• Y02B90/242

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06Q10/06 Primary

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• Y04S20/242

  Home appliances · CPC title

• Y04S20/52

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y04S20/322

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic