Indirect electrical appliance power consumption monitoring and management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9244116-B2
Application number	US-201414200692-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2014
Priority date	May 10, 2013
Publication date	Jan 26, 2016
Grant date	Jan 26, 2016

Abstract

The operation of electrical appliances receiving electrical power from an electrical system may be indirectly monitored using monitoring units engaged with outlets on branch circuits of the electrical system. Electrical systems providing power to appliances to be monitored in accordance with the present invention may comprise split phase alternating current systems, tri-phase systems, or any other type of electrical system. Known loads may be applied to calibrate the monitoring system. The monitoring system may measure the power consumption of appliances operating on the electrical system and/or detect possible fault conditions. The monitoring system may be distributed across multiple monitoring units and other computing devices. Output devices may be used to output a summary of the power consumption or other operation of monitored electrical appliances.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for monitoring and reporting on the performance of a plurality of electrical appliances that receive electrical power from an electrical system having at least two branch circuits on different phases of the electrical system, the at least two branch circuits having a hot line, a neutral line and a ground line, the system for monitoring and reporting on the performance of a plurality of electrical appliances comprising:
a first monitoring unit that interfaces with an outlet of a first branch circuit of the electrical system, the first monitoring unit not directly interfaced with at least some of the plurality of electrical appliances to be monitored so that some of the plurality of electrical appliances to be monitored do not receive power through the first monitoring unit, the first monitoring unit comprising:
one or more voltage measuring units that interface with the first branch circuit to measure the voltage between the hot and neutral lines and between the neutral and ground lines of the first branch circuit,
digital storage media that retains data describing the voltage measurements made by the one or more voltage measuring units,
an electrical load having known properties that is applied to the first branch circuit,
a control component that causes the one or more voltage measuring units to measure the voltages with and without the electrical load applied and causes information describing the measured voltages to be stored by the digital storage media, and
a communication interface that permits the control component to exchange data with other devices; and

a second monitoring unit that interfaces with an outlet of a second branch circuit of the electrical system, the second monitoring unit not directly interfaced with at least some of the plurality of electrical appliances to be monitored so that some of the plurality of electrical appliances to be monitored do not receive power through the second monitoring unit, the second monitoring unit comprising
one or more voltage measuring units that interface with the second branch circuit to measure the voltage between the hot and neutral lines and between the neutral and ground lines of the second branch circuit,
digital storage media that retains data describing the voltage measurements made by the one or more voltage measuring units,
an electrical load having known properties that is applied to the second branch circuit,
a control component that causes the one or more voltage measuring units to measure the voltages with and without the electrical load applied and causes information describing the measured voltages to be stored by the digital storage media, and
a communication interface that permits the control component to exchange data with other devices;

wherein the control component of the first monitoring unit and the control component of the second monitoring unit coordinate in time the application of the electrical load of the first monitoring unit and the application of the electrical load of the second monitoring unit such that only one electrical load is applied at a single time, and
wherein each of the control components use the information describing the measured voltages from both the first monitoring unit and the second monitoring unit to calibrate the system and, based upon those calibrations, each of the control components cause their respective voltage measuring units to measure changes in the voltage between the hot and neutral lines without the application of an electrical load having known electrical properties and the resulting voltage measurements are used to characterize the performance of an electrical appliance receiving electrical power from the electrical system.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control component of the first monitoring unit and the control component of the second monitoring unit coordinate the application of the electric load of the first monitoring unit and the second monitoring unit and coordinate the voltage measuring unit of the first monitoring unit and the voltage measuring unit of the second monitoring unit to measure voltages at each of the first monitoring unit and the second monitoring unit at a time when:
the only electrical load applied by the monitoring units is the electrical load having known properties of the first monitoring unit,
the only electrical load applied by the monitoring units is the electrical load having known properties of the second monitoring unit is applied to the electrical system, and
no electrical load is applied to the electrical system by a monitoring unit.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first branch circuit and the second branch circuit are on different phases of an alternating current electrical system.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the alternating current electrical system comprises a tri-phase electrical system having a first branch circuit corresponding to a first phase of the electrical system, a second branch circuit corresponding to a second phase of the electrical system, and a third branch circuit corresponding to a third phase of the electrical system, the system for system for monitoring and reporting on the performance of electrical appliances further comprising:
a third monitoring unit that interfaces with an outlet of the third branch circuit of the electrical system, the second monitoring unit not directly interfaced with at least some of the plurality of electrical appliances to be monitored so that some of the plurality of electrical appliances to be monitored do not receive power through the second monitoring unit, the second monitoring unit comprising
one or more voltage measuring units that interface with the third branch circuit to measure the voltage between the hot and neutral lines and between the neutral and ground lines of the third branch circuit,
digital storage media that retains data describing the voltage measurements made by the one or more voltage measuring units,
an electrical load having known properties that is applied to the third branch circuit;
a control component that causes the one or more voltage measuring units to measure the voltages before and after the electrical load is applied and causes information describing the measured voltages to be stored by the digital storage media, and
a communication interface that permits the control component to exchange data with other devices;

wherein the control component of the first monitoring unit, the control component of the second monitoring unit, and the control component of the third monitoring unit coordinate in time the application of the electrical load of the first monitoring unit, the application of the electrical load of the second monitoring unit, and the application of the load of the third monitoring unit such that only one electrical load is applied at a single time, and
wherein each of the control components use the information describing the measured voltages from the first monitoring unit, the second monitoring unit, and the third monitoring unit to calibrate the system and, based upon those calibrations, each of the control components cause their respective voltage measuring units to measure changes in the voltage between the hot and neutral lines without the application of an electrical load having known electrical properties and the resulting voltage measurements are used to characterize the performance of an electrical appliance receiving electrical power from the electrical system.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the control components calculate the amount of power consumed by individual electrical appliances that receive electrical power from the electrical system based upon changes in the measurements of voltages made by the measuring unit at the first control unit and the measuring unit at the seco

Assignees

• Alarm Com Inc

Inventors

• Kabler Ronald Byron
• Lutes Robert Leon
• Briançon Alain Charles
• Crawford Curtis Scott
• Giacoponello Christopher Allen
• Johnson Jerald Frederic
• Jara-Olivares Victor Andres
• Epard Marc Anthony
• Goldberg Steven Jeffrey

Classifications

• G01R31/2836 Primary

  Fault-finding or characterising (G01R31/2822 - G01R31/2831 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06Q50/06

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• G01R31/2837

  Characterising or performance testing, e.g. of frequency response (transient response G01R27/28) · CPC title

• G01R35/005

  Calibrating; Standards or reference devices, e.g. voltage or resistance standards, "golden" references (G01R33/0035, G01R35/002 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01D4/008

  Modifications to installed utility meters to enable remote reading · CPC title