Utilization-time changing support device and method of supporting change in utilization time

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9395709-B2
Application number	US-201213396693-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 15, 2012
Priority date	Aug 28, 2009
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

Provided is a utilization-time changing support device including: a household-electrical-appliance power record storage unit storing records of power consumption for each household electrical appliance used in a living space; a power record writing unit receiving information indicating the power consumption of the household electrical appliance from a measuring device that measures the power consumption, and writing, into the household-electrical-appliance power record storage unit, a record of the information as one of the records of the power consumption; a regular use determining unit determining whether or not the household electrical appliance used during a predetermined period is regularly used, based on the records of the power consumption; and a period change possibility determining unit outputting (i) whether or not a utilization period of the household electrical appliance can be changed and (ii) another utilization period as a result of the determination, based on the records of the power consumption.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A utilization-time changing support device comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored thereon executable instructions, which when executed by said processor, cause said utilization-time changing support device to function as:
a household-electrical-appliance power record storage unit configured to store records of power consumption for a plurality of household electrical appliances used in a household;
a power record writing unit configured to receive information indicating the power consumption of each household electrical appliance of the plurality of household electrical appliances from a measuring device that measures the power consumption, and write, into said household-electrical-appliance power record storage unit, a record of the information as one of the records of the power consumption;
a regular use determining unit configured to determine whether or not a household electrical appliance of the plurality of household appliances used during a predetermined time range in a first day is used during the predetermined time range in a second day different from the first day to determine whether or not the household electrical appliance is regularly used during the predetermined time range, based on the records of the power consumption stored in said household-electrical-appliance power record storage unit, the predetermined time range being shorter than one day;
a period change possibility determining unit configured to determine a degree of variation between a utilization period of the household electrical appliance on the first day and a utilization period of the household electrical appliance on the second day, and output (i) whether or not a utilization period of the household electrical appliance determined by said regular use determining unit as being regularly used can be changed, based on the determined degree of variation and (ii) an other utilization period as a result of the determination, based on the records of the power consumption of the household electrical appliance; and
an operation control unit configured to change the utilization period of the household electrical appliance based on a result of the determination of said regular use determining unit and a result of the determination of said period change possibility determining unit, and control an operation of the household electrical appliance according to the change of the utilization period of the household electrical appliance.

2. The utilization-time changing support device according to claim 1 ,
wherein said period change possibility determining unit is configured to determine that a possibility of changing the utilization period of the household electrical appliance is higher as the degree of variation between utilization periods of the household electrical appliance on the first day and the second day is higher, the household electrical appliance being determined by said regular use determining unit as being regularly used.

3. The utilization-time changing support device according to claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions, when executed by said processor, cause said utilization-time changing support device to further function as:
a household-electrical-appliance power characteristics storage unit configured to store, for each household electrical appliance to be used in the household, utilization method changing information indicating whether or not a utilization period of each household electrical appliance can be changed,
wherein said period change possibility determining unit is configured to determine, only for the household electrical appliance indicated by the utilization method changing information that the utilization period of the household electrical appliance can be changed, whether or not the utilization period can be changed based on the records of the power consumption of the household electrical appliance.

4. The utilization-time changing support device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the utilization method changing information further includes process information on operations of each of the household electrical appliances, and
said period change possibility determining unit is configured to determine whether or not the utilization period can be changed per process, with reference to the process information.

5. The utilization-time changing support device according to claim 4 ,
wherein the process information includes a drying process, and
said period change possibility determining unit is configured to determine whether or not a utilization period of the drying process can be changed.

6. The utilization-time changing support device according to claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions, when executed by said processor, cause said utilization-time changing support device to further function as:
a by-lifestyle household electrical appliance storage unit configured to store, for each lifestyle, information on a household electrical appliance that is more likely to be used in conjunction with the lifestyle; and
a lifestyle period determining unit configured to determine a period of each of the lifestyles, based on the information stored in said by-lifestyle household electrical appliance storage unit and the records of the power consumption of the household electrical appliances,
wherein said regular use determining unit is configured to determine, for each of the lifestyles, whether or not the lifestyle is regularly repeated, the lifestyle having the period determined by said lifestyle period determining unit, and
said period change possibility determining unit is configured to determine (i) whether or not the period of the lifestyle can be changed and (ii) an other period of the lifestyle, based on the records of the power consumption of the household electrical appliances included in the lifestyle determined by said regular use determining unit as being regularly repeated, and output a result of the determination.

7. The utilization-time changing support device according to claim 6 ,
wherein the lifestyle is a daily life event defined by use of the plurality of household electrical appliances,
said by-lifestyle household electrical appliance storage unit is configured to store, for each daily life event, information on the household electrical appliances that are more likely to be used in conjunction with the daily life event,
said lifestyle period determining unit is configured to determine a period of each of the daily life events, based on the information stored in said by-lifestyle household electrical appliance storage unit and the records of the power consumption,
said regular use determining unit is configured to determine, for each of the daily life events, whether or not the daily life event determined by said lifestyle period determining unit is regularly repeated, and
said period change possibility determining unit is configured to determine (i) whether or not a period of the daily life event can be changed and (ii) an other period of the daily life event, based on the records of the power consumption of the household electrical appliances included in the daily life event determined by said regular use determining unit as being regularly repeated, and output a result of the determination.

8. The utilization-time changing support device according to claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions, when executed by said processor, cause said utilization-time changing support device to further function as:
a utilization start time predicting unit configured to predict a utilization start time of the household electrical appliance, based on the records of the power consumption stored in said household-electrical-appliance power record storage unit,
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Assignees

• Ozawa Jun
• Inoue Tsuyoshi
• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ozawa Jun
• Inoue Tsuyoshi

Classifications

• G05B15/02 Primary

  electric · CPC title