WO2007138315A2

WO2007138315A2 - A monitoring device and system

Info

Publication number: WO2007138315A2
Application number: PCT/GB2007/001994
Authority: WO
Inventors: Keith Berry
Original assignee: 2 Save Energy Plc.
Priority date: 2006-05-30
Filing date: 2007-05-30
Publication date: 2007-12-06
Also published as: GB2440961A; WO2007138315A3; GB0610669D0

Abstract

A monitoring system comprising a plurality of utility meters, each utility meter being arranged to determine the consumption of a respective utility within a dwelling; a transmitter associated with each utility meter, wherein each transmitter is arranged to wirelessly transmit to a receiving device located within the dwelling consumption data that represents the determined consumption of the respective utility, wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine a cost for each of the respective utilities consumed over a specified time period based on the received consumption data and/or to determine the cost of all of the respective utilities consumed over the specified time period, wherein the receiving device includes a display for displaying the cost of each of the respective utilities consumed and/or the cost of all of the respective utilities consumed.

Description

A MONITORING DEVICE AND SYSTEM

The present invention relates to a monitoring device and system for monitoring the cost and emissions associated with utilities used within a dwelling.

Increasingly there is a conflict between the need for energy use in modern life and the potential consequences that this energy use has on the environment .

Indeed, there has been considerable speculation as to the effect greenhouse gases produced by burning oil, coal and natural gas has on climate change; where it has been speculated that based on current trends in energy usage, by the end of this century worldwide temperature increases resulting from greenhouse gas emissions could cause catastrophes such as the melting of the polar ice caps, resulting in rising sea levels.

Consequently, there is an increasing drive to reduce energy consumption to minimise the potential effects of greenhouse gases .

Further, with the continuing increase in energy prices house owners and businesses are increasingly attempting to rationalise their energy usage to minimise energy costs.

However, when monitoring energy usage it is difficult using existing utility meters to obtain the information, in a convenient form, required to make an accurate determination of how much energy as to being used. For example, utility meters are typically placed in inconvenient locations, for example outside of a dwelling in a locked unit, and the units of measurement used by the utility meters have little meaning to a normal consumer.

As a consequence, it is difficult for an energy user to make an accurate determination as to how much energy is being used over a specified period of time and the potential environmental impact that this energy usage is likely to have .

It is desirable to improve this situation.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention there is provided a monitoring system and device according to the accompanying claims.

This provides the advantage of allowing an energy user to conveniently monitor the cost, usage and estimated carbon emissions resulting from the use of a plurality of utility services within a dwelling in a central location. Further, this information can be provided to utility providers to minimise the need for utility meters to be read on site.

A monitoring system comprising a first meter for determining gas consumption within a dwelling; a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting gas consumption data that represents the determined gas consumption from the first meter to a receiving device located within the dwelling; wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine a cost of the determined gas consumption over a first specified time period based on the received gas consumption data and determine estimated carbon emissions associated with the determined gas consumption, wherein the receiving device includes a display for displaying the cost of the determined gas consumption and estimated carbon emissions.

Preferably the monitoring system, further comprising a second meter for determining electricity consumption within the dwelling; a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting electricity consumption data that represents the determined electricity consumption from the second meter to the receiving device; wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine a cost of the determined electricity consumption over a second specified time period based on the received electricity consumption data and determine estimated carbon emissions associated with the determined electricity consumption, wherein the receiving device is arranged to display the cost of the determined electricity consumption and estimated carbon emissions.

Preferably the monitoring system further comprising a third meter for determining oil consumption within the dwelling; a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting oil consumption data that represents the determined oil consumption from the third meter to the receiving device; wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine a cost of the determined oil consumption over a third specified time period based on the received oil consumption data and determine estimated carbon emissions associated with the determined oil consumption, wherein the receiving device is arranged to display the cost of the determined oil consumption and estimated carbon emissions. Preferably the monitoring system further comprising a fourth meter for determining water consumption within the dwelling; a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting water consumption data that represents the determined water consumption from the fourth meter to the receiving device; wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine a cost of the determined water consumption over a fourth specified time period based on the received determined water consumption data, wherein the receiving device is arranged to display the cost of the determined water consumption.

A monitoring device comprising a receiver arranged to wirelessly receive gas consumption data for a dwelling, a processor arranged to determine a cost of the gas consumption that is represented by the gas consumption data over a first specified time period based on the received gas consumption data and determine estimated carbon emissions associated with the gas consumption, and a display for displaying the cost of the gas consumption and estimated carbon emissions.

Preferably the receiver is arranged to wirelessly receive electricity consumption data for the dwelling, the processor arranged to determine a cost of the electricity consumption that is represented by the electricity consumption data over a second specified time period based on the received electricity consumption data and determine estimated carbon emissions associated with the electricity consumption, and the display is arranged to display the cost of the electricity consumption and estimated carbon emissions. Preferably the receiver is arranged to wirelessly receive oil consumption data for the dwelling, the processor arranged to determine a cost of the oil consumption that is represented by the oil consumption data over a third specified time period based on the received oil consumption data and determine estimated carbon emissions associated with the oil consumption, and the display is arranged to display the cost of the oil consumption and estimated carbon emissions.

Preferably the receiver is arranged to wirelessly receive water consumption data for the dwelling, the processor arranged to determine a cost of the water consumption that is represented by the water consumption data over a fourth specified time period based on the received water consumption data, and the display is arranged to display the cost of the water consumption.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a monitoring device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of a monitoring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a dwelling 100, for example a house, flat, business or any commercial/office premises, having a gas meter 101, an electricity meter 102, an oil meter 103 and a water meter 104 located on the outside of the dwelling 100, where the gas meter 101, electricity meter 102, oil meter 103 and water meter 104 are collectively referred to as utility meters. However, as would be appreciated by a person skilled in the art, the utility meters could be located in any location. Further, although the current embodiment includes an electricity meter 102, oil meter 103 and water meter 104 being used in conjunction with the gas meter 101, the current embodiment could be used with any utility meter or combination of utility meters.

The gas meter 101 is arranged to monitor/estimate the amount of gas provided to the dwelling 100, as is well known to a person skilled in the art. The gas could be any form of consumable gas, for example natural gas or propane.

The gas meter 101 used could be the central gas meter that is provided by the gas utility company, who provides the gas to the dwelling 100, for determining how much gas is consumed within a dwelling. Typically this meter is located on a main inlet to the dwelling 100. Alternatively, the gas meter 101 could be a secondary meter to the central gas meter that is placed between the central gas meter and the dwelling 100. Any suitable means for determining gas consumption could be used, for example monitoring the volume of gas used or monitoring the usage display on the central gas meter.

Coupled to the gas meter 101 is a first pulse meter 105 that is arranged to generate pulse signals based on the amount of gas being provided to the dwelling 100. The first pulse meter 105 is coupled to a first wireless transmitter 106 that is arranged to transmit the pulse signals to a receiver unit 107 (i.e. a monitoring device) located in the dwelling 100, where the monitoring device 107 is arranged to receive the transmitted pulse signals.

The electricity meter 102 is arranged to monitor/estimate the amount of electricity provided to the dwelling 100, as is well known to a person skilled in the art.

The electricity meter 102 used could be the central electricity meter that is provided by the electricity utility company, who provides the electricity to the dwelling 100, for determining how much electricity is consumed within a dwelling. Typically this meter is located on a main inlet to the dwelling 100. Alternatively, the electricity meter 102 could be a secondary meter to the central electricity meter that is placed between the central electricity meter and the dwelling 100. Any suitable means for determining electricity consumption could be used, for example monitoring the current flow or monitoring the usage display on the central electricity meter.

Coupled to the electricity meter 102 is a second pulse meter 108 that is arranged to generate pulse signals based on the amount of electricity being provided to the dwelling 100. The second pulse meter 108 is coupled to a second wireless transmitter 109 that is arranged to transmit the pulse signals to the monitoring device 107 located in the dwelling 100, where the monitoring device 107 is arranged to receive the transmitted pulse signals. The oil meter 103 is arranged to monitor/estimate the amount of oil provided to the dwelling 100, as is well known to a person skilled in the art .

The oil meter 103 used could be any suitable oil meter that is used to measuring the flow of oil being provided from an oil tank (not shown) to the dwelling 100. Typically the oil meter 103 will be located on the outlet to an oil tank.

Coupled to the oil meter 103 is a third pulse meter 110 that is arranged to generate pulse signals based on the amount of oil being provided to the dwelling 100. The third pulse meter 110 is coupled to a third wireless transmitter 111 that is arranged to transmit the pulse signals to the monitoring device 107 located in the dwelling 100, where the monitoring device 107 is arranged to receive the transmitted pulse signals.

The water meter 104 is arranged to monitor/estimate the amount of water provided to the dwelling 100, as is well known to a person skilled in the art .

The water meter 104 used could be the central water meter that is provided by the water utility company, who provides the water to the dwelling 100, for determining how much water is consumed within a dwelling. Typically this meter is located on a main inlet to the dwelling 100. Alternatively, the water meter 104 could be a secondary meter to the central water meter that is placed between the central water meter and the dwelling 100. Any suitable means for determining water consumption could be used, for example monitoring the volume of water flowing into a dwelling or monitoring the usage display on the central water meter.

Coupled to the water meter 104 is a fourth pulse meter 112 that is arranged to generate pulse signals based on the amount of water being provided to the dwelling 100. The fourth pulse meter 112 is coupled to a fourth wireless transmitter 113 that is arranged to transmit the pulse signals to the monitoring device 107 located in the dwelling 100, where the monitoring device 107 is arranged to receive the transmitted pulse signals.

The pulse signals can be transmitted to the monitoring device 107 via the first, second, third and fourth wireless transmitters 106, 109, 111, 113 using any suitable wireless signal and using any suitable wireless protocol . For example, the signals could be transmitted as a wireless LAN signal compliant with the 802.11 standard, or according to the new micro Ethernet standard ' Zigbee ' . Preferably, however, the pulse signals will be transmitted by the transmitters 106, 109, 111, 113 to the monitoring device 107 at a frequency of approximately 433 MHz or 868 MHz.

The pulse signals can either be transmitted continuously to allow a continuous determination of how much gas, electricity, oil and water is being used. Alternatively, the pulse signals can be transmitted periodically to represent periodic updated usage figures .

Although the current embodiment describes the use of pulse meters to convert the usage information generated by the respective utility meters into a format suitable for transmission to the monitoring device 107, any suitable means for converting the usage information into a format suitable for transmission could be used.

As shown in figure 2, the monitoring device 107 includes a wireless receiver 201 for receiving the pulse signals transmitted by the first, second, third and fourth wireless transmitters 106, 109, 111, 113, a processor 202 that is coupled to the receiver 201, a display 203 that is coupled to the processor 202 and preferably a network interface 204 that is coupled to the processor 202. As would be appreciated by a person skilled in the art, the monitoring device 107 would include additional features, for example memory (not shown) and a power source (not shown) , however as these features would be known by the person skilled in the art they will not be described in further detail .

Preferably the monitoring device 107 will be portable to allow it to be moved to different locations within the dwelling 100. However, the monitoring device can be a fixed unit .

The monitoring device 107 is arranged to receive the pulse signals transmitted by the first, second, third and fourth wireless transmitters 106, 109, 111, 113, where the respective pulse signals are passed to the processor 202 for processing.

From the received pulse signals the processor 202 is arranged to determine how much gas, electricity, oil and/or water is being consumed at any particular instance. Additionally, the processor 202 is arranged to monitor the consumption of gas, electricity, oil and/or water over a specified period of time, for example by keeping a running track of how much gas, electricity, oil and/or water is being used or by comparing usage values between two specified time periods. The specified time periods can either be selected by a user using a user-interface (e.g. a selector) (not shown) located on the monitoring device 107 or the specified time period may be selected from a predetermined list of time periods, for example usage over an hour, day, week, month or year.

Typically the specified time period for each of the utilities (i.e. gas, electricity, oil and water) will be the same, however the specified time period can be different for the different utilities.

Stored in the monitoring device 107 are usage charges for the respective utilities, for example cost per KWatt . Using the stored usage charges the processor 202 determines the cost of the gas, electricity, oil and water used over the specified period, or a plurality of specified periods, and arranges for this information to be displayed on the display 203.

The usage charges can be stored on the monitoring device 107 using any suitable means, for example the inputting of the charges by a user or the downloading of charges by the respective utility companies.

Following selection of a specified time period, or a plurality of specified time periods, the processor 202 is arranged to display on the display 203 usage costs for the specified time period (s) for gas, and/or electricity, and/or oil and/or water. As such, the cost of one or more of the consumed utilities over the specified time period can by determined by the monitoring device 107 and displayed on the display 203.

For example, the cost of gas and/or electricity and/or oil and/or water over a specified time period of an hour, day or week could be displayed and, as stated above, a cost of usage for an additional specified time period could also be displayed, for example the time period since the issuing of a previous bill .

The processor 202 can also be configured to display the utility data received from the respective utility meters and/or the total cost of all the utilities over a specified time period and/or the instantaneous cost of the use of gas and/or electricity and/or oil and/or water.

The format of the information displayed on the display 203 of the monitoring device 107 can take any suitable form, for example in a table or graph format.

An example of the format of the information displayed is shown in FIG. 3, where in this example the electricity usage is 6.3 kw, which, using energy costs provided by the appropriate utility company, translates into a usage cost of 75.6 pence per hour and the usage cost since the last bill of £231.04. The dwelling is using 4.1 kw of gas at a cost of 16.4 pence per hour and the usage cost since the last bill of £363.05. The dwelling is using 0.1 cubic meters of water at a cost of 9.8 pence per hour and the usage cost since the last bill of £127. The accumulated cost of all the utilities for the dwelling is £721.11 for the last quarter. Using the conversion rates of 0.19kg of CO² per kw of gas used and 0.43kg of CO² per kw of electricity used the monitoring device has determined, based on the measured usage of gas and electricity, that the estimate for the annual carbon emissions resulting from the utility usage in the dwelling is 1.73 tonnes.

Additionally, the processor can be configured to generate an alert, for example an audible signal, or flashing symbol, if a usage amount and/or usage cost for one or more utilities exceeds a predetermined threshold. Similarly, the processor can be configured to generate an alert if the quantity of estimated carbon emissions exceed a predetermined threshold.

In addition to the processor 202 being arranged to present the received and calculated data on the display 203, preferably the processor 202 is preferably arranged to transmit the received data to the network interface 204 for transmission over a network (not shown) . For example, the received data and/or cost of use of the utilities for a specified time period can be transmitted over a local area network to allow the data to be collated on a personal computer (not shown) .

The network interface 204 can be arranged to operate over either a wired or wireless network.

Preferably the network interface 204 will have an associated IP address to allow TCP/IP communication. In addition, or alternatively, the received data could be transmitted, via the network interface 204, onto a network, for example the Internet, for use by utility companies to allow meter readings to be taken without the need for someone to physically read a utility meter.

The monitoring device 107 can be configured to either automatically transmit the received data and/or usage costs over the network, for example at a specified time or when a specified amount of gas/electricity/oil and/or water has been used. Alternatively, the data can be placed on the network as a result of a utility company remotely interrogating the monitoring device 107.

In addition to the calculation of usage charges the processor 202 is arranged to calculate an estimate of how much carbon will be emitted into the atmosphere as a result of the use of gas/electricity and/or oil consumed in the dwelling 100 over a specified time period, where the additional information relating to carbon emissions is presented on the display 203.

For example, the estimated carbon emission can be based on standard published conversion figures, for example 0.19kg of CO² emitted into the atmosphere for 1 Kwatt of gas consumed and 0.43kg of CO² emitted into the atmosphere for lKwat of electricity consumed.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosed subject matter may be modified in numerous ways and may assume embodiments other than the preferred forms specifically set out as described above, for example the monitoring device can be configured to display additional information, for example temperature, humidity and/or time.

Claims

1. A monitoring system comprising a plurality of utility meters, each utility meter being arranged to determine the consumption of a respective utility within a dwelling; a transmitter associated with each utility meter, wherein each transmitter is arranged to wirelessly transmit to a receiving device located within the dwelling consumption data that represents the determined consumption of the respective utility, wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine a cost for each of the respective utilities consumed over a specified time period based on the received consumption data and/or to determine the cost of all of the respective utilities consumed over the specified time period, wherein the receiving device includes a display for displaying the cost of each of the respective utilities consumed and/or the cost of all of the respective utilities consumed.

2. A monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a first utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the gas consumed within the dwelling and a second utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the water consumed within the dwelling.

3. A monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a first utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the electricity consumed within the dwelling and a second utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the water consumed within the dwelling.

4. A monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a first utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the oil consumed within the dwelling and a second utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the water consumed within the dwelling.

5. A monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a first utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the gas consumed within the dwelling, a second utility meter of the plurality of meters is arranged to determine the electricity consumed within the dwelling and a third utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the water consumed within the dwelling.

6. A monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a first utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the electricity consumed within the dwelling, a second utility meter of the plurality of meters is arranged to determine the oil consumed within the dwelling and a third utility meter of the plurality of utility meters is arranged to determine the water consumed within the dwelling.

7. A monitoring system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the specified time period is the same specified time period for each of the different utilities or a different specified time period for each of the utilities.

8. A monitoring system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the receiving device includes a selector for selecting the first specified time period, the second specified time period, the third specified time period and the fourth specified time period.

9. A monitoring system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the receiving device is arranged to display on the display the data that represents the determined consumption of one or more of the respective utilities .

10. A monitoring system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the receiving device is arranged to be coupled to a network for communicating the data that represents the determined consumption of one or more of the respective utilities over the network.

11. A monitoring system according to claim 10, wherein the network is the Internet.

12. A monitoring system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine estimated carbon emissions associated with the determined consumption of one or more of the respective utilities.

13. A monitoring device comprising a receiver arranged to wirelessly receive consumption data for a plurality of utilities consumed in a dwelling, wherein the receiving device is arranged to determine a cost for each of the respective utilities consumed over a specified time period based on the received consumption data and/or to determine the cost of all of the respective utilities consumed over the specified time period, wherein the receiving device includes a display for displaying the cost of each of the respective utilities consumed and/or the cost of all of the respective utilities consumed.

14. A monitoring system according to claim 13, further comprising a selector for selecting the first specified time period, the second specified time period, the third specified time period and the fourth specified time period.

15. A monitoring system according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the display is arranged to display on the display the data that represents the determined consumption of one or more of the respective utilities.