Monitoring and fault detection of electrical appliances for ambient intelligence

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9476935-B2
Application number	US-201414200756-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2014
Priority date	May 10, 2013
Publication date	Oct 25, 2016
Grant date	Oct 25, 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. Fault conditions may be detected by comparing obtained voltage or power signatures of appliances to expected voltage or power signatures. Expected voltage or power signatures may be obtained, for example, using historical data, a database providing typical voltage or power signatures, or through other means.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for detecting atypical behavior by electrical appliances, the method comprising:
engaging at least one monitoring unit with an outlet of an electrical system, the electrical system having a plurality of electrical appliances engaged with other outlets;
at one of the at least one monitoring unit, applying a known electrical load and detecting the resulting change in voltage at one of the at least one monitoring unit to create at least one calibration measurement;
at one of the at least one monitoring unit, detecting voltage changes when no known electrical load is being applied at any of the at least one monitoring unit, the detecting voltage changes creating a plurality of voltage change measurements;
using the at least one calibration measurement and the plurality of voltage change measurements, identifying the operation of at least one of the electrical appliances engaged with the other outlets of the electrical system and characterizing the operation of the at least one of the plurality of electrical appliances;
based upon changes in the characterization of the operation of the at least one of the plurality of electrical appliances created using the at least one calibration measurement and the plurality of voltage change measurements over time, identifying a change in the operation of at least one of the plurality of electrical appliances; and
issuing an alert identifying the change in operation of the at least one of the plurality of electrical appliances.

2. The method for detecting atypical behavior of electrical appliances of claim 1 , wherein characterizing the operation of at least one of the plurality of electrical appliances comprises identifying voltage change measurements that correspond to individual electrical appliances operating on the electrical system and creating a voltage change profile for each of the individual electrical appliances.

3. The method for detecting atypical behavior of electrical appliances of claim 2 , wherein the average voltage change profiles are constructed in the time domain.

4. The method for detecting atypical behavior of electrical appliances of claim 2 , wherein the average voltage change profiles are constructed in the frequency domain.

5. The method for detecting atypical behavior of electrical appliances of claim 2 , wherein the individual electrical appliances comprise at least one of: HVAC, furnace, water heater, clothes dryer, cooking range, dishwasher, jacuzzi, microwave oven, washing machine, toaster, solar panel, solar panel inverter, electric car charger, charger, blow dryer, television, computer, monitor, refrigerator, freezer, garage door opener, thermostat, lighting, pool pump, and pump.

6. The method for detecting atypical behavior of electrical appliances of claim 5 , wherein the voltage change profile of an individual appliance is analyzed to identify at least one of: a temperature level in a refrigerator, frost in a freezer, an open door, an ice maker not working, a fan blocked, a fan broken, a heating element not functional, a pump not functional, a clogged pipe, an impeded airflow, an impeded water flow, a filter due for replacement, a high pressure switch set, a wiring mistake, a low coolant level, a leak, a blocked duct, a frozen coil, a diode failure, a capacitor failure, a door switch status, a magnetron failure, a transformer burned out, and a thermal fuse blown.

7. The method of claim 2 , further comprising accessing at least one database with information describing the expected voltage change profiles of predetermined electrical appliances, and wherein information received from the at least one database is used in combination with the calibration measurement and the voltage change measurements to identify the operation of at least one electrical appliance.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined electrical appliances comprise at least one of: HVAC, furnace, water heater, clothes dryer, cooking range, dishwasher, jacuzzi, microwave oven, washing machine, toaster, solar panel, solar panel inverter, electric car charger, charger, blow dryer, television, computer, monitor, refrigerator, freezer, garage door opener, thermostat, lighting, pool pump, and pump.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising accessing at least one database with information describing voltage change profiles associated with at least one of: a temperature level in a refrigerator, frost in a freezer, an open door, an ice maker not working, a fan blocked, a fan broken, a heating element not functional, a pump not functional, a clogged pipe, an impeded airflow, an impeded water flow, a filter due for replacement, a high pressure switch set, a wiring mistake, a low coolant level, a leak, a blocked duct, a frozen coil, a diode failure, a capacitor failure, a door switch status, a magnetron failure, a transformer burned out, and a thermal fuse blown.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein issuing an alert further comprises initiating a service related to the detected change in operation of the identified electrical appliance.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the service initiated is at least one of: advertising, lead generation, affiliate sale, classifieds, featured list, location-based offers, sponsorships, targeted offers, commerce, retailing, marketplace, crowd sourced marketplace, excess capacity markets, vertically integrated commerce, aggregator, flash sales, group buying, digital goods, sales goods, training, commission, commission per order, auction, reverse auction, opaque inventory, barter for services, pre-payment, subscription, software as a service (saas), service as a service, content as a service, infrastructure/platform as a service, brokering, donations, sampling, membership services, support and maintenance, paywall, insurance, peer-to-peer service, transaction processing, merchant acquiring, intermediary, acquiring processing, bank transfer, bank depository offering, interchange fee per transaction, fulfillment, licensing, data, user data, user evaluations, business data, user intelligence, search data, real consumer intent data, benchmarking services, market research, push services, link to an app store, coupons, digital-to-physical, subscription, online education, crowd sourcing education, delivery, gift recommendation, coupons, loyalty program, alerts, reduction in insurance premium, and coaching.

12. A method for detecting fault conditions in electrical appliances that receive electrical power from an electrical system, the method comprising:
coupling at least a first monitoring unit with an outlet of the electrical system, the monitoring unit measuring the voltage between the hot and neutral lines and between the neutral and ground lines of the electrical system;
applying an electrical load with known properties to the electrical system and measuring the voltage between the hot and neutral lines and the neutral and ground lines of the outlet while the known electrical load is applied;
using the change in the measured voltage resulting from the electrical load with known properties to create a model of the electrical system;
while the electrical load with known properties is not applied to the electrical system, recording measured voltage changes between the hot and neutral lines and the neutral and ground lines of the electrical outlet to detect a voltage profile indicative of an electrical appliance operating on the electrical system;
comparing the detected voltage profile indicative of an electrical appliance operating on the electrical system to an expected voltage profile stored in a digital medium; and
if the detected voltage profile differs from the expected voltage pr

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
• Lancaster John Berns

Classifications

• G01R35/005

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

• G06Q50/06

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• G01R31/2836 Primary

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

• G01D4/008

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

• G01R31/2837

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