Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/06—Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
  • H02J—CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
  • H02J3/00—Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
  • H02J3/007—Arrangements for selectively connecting the load or loads to one or several among a plurality of power lines or power sources

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for dividing the energy consumed by a shared utility shared by a plurality of users according to relative ownership share rates.
• the invention relates to the division of the energy consumed by a shared service utility shared by a plurality of flat-owners in a block of individually owned flats.
• the invention further relates to an apparatus for carrying out the method.
• the invention finds its main application in the field of the management of the absorption of electrical energy by shared utilities which can be activated by different users according to their needs.
• shared service utilities in a block of flats can be the lights of stairwells, the lights of courtyards, the supply of power to intercoms, the supply of power to electric gates, elevators, etc.
• the costs for the management of these shared utilities must be properly divided among the users sharing them.
• the currently most spread solution used to divide the energy consumed by said shared utilities consists in providing each shared utility, or a series of shared utilities, with a relative power meter for the sole purpose of recording the total energy consumption that can be assigned to that shared utility. Subsequently, the consumption data must be divided and this division usually is made by the manager of the block of flats, allocating single consumption share rates to the different users .
• the object of the invention is to provide an alternative method for the division of the energy consumed by a shared utility shared by a plurality of users, which is capable of overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art in a simple and economic fashion, both from the functional point of view and from the constructive point of view .
• the invention relates to a method for dividing the energy consumed by a shared utility shared by a plurality of users according to relative ownership share rates.
• the method comprises at least the steps of:
• At least one switch connected on one side to the shared utility and on the other side configured to selectively connect to one or the other user power supply for allocating on the respective user power meter the current power consumption of the shared utility;
• control unit configured for controlling the switch.
• power supply line provided with the respective power meter for each user mean that the energy needed for the operation of the shared utility can be drawn in an independent manner by the single users by means of a power supply line.
• These power supply lines currently are already present in the systems of the different block of flats and the relative power meters can be the power meters currently installed.
• the terms "shared utility” can identify the lights of stairwells, the lights of courtyards, the supply of power to intercoms, the supply of power to electric gates, elevators, etc. As it is known, some of these utilities are activated in an automatic and scheduled manner without a specific request, whereas others are activated at the request of a particular user, when they need it.
• switch indicates a movable switch, or "switcher”, suitable for being selectively connected to one or the other utility with the control of a control unit, or electronic control unit.
• the general aspect of the invention concerns the control of the switch both during the automatic activation of the utilities and during their activation at the specific request of a particular user.
• the general aspect of the invention relates to the choice of the power supply line for the first contact as well as the choice and the time frame for the migration towards a different line during the use of the shared utility when it is activated by a particular user.
• control unit is configured for controlling the switch in the following modes :
• control unit commands the progressive connection of the switch to one or the other user power supply according to the ownership share rate subdivisions;
• control unit commands the switch to the user power supply line of the particular user that requested the shared utility to be activated.
• the system needs to be able to identify the user who activated the shared utility .
• the shared utility does not need any longer to be provided with a relative power meter.
• the respective consumptions will be directly allocated to the power meter connected to the power supply line from which the energy for the use of the shared utility is drawn. Therefore, no calculations for the division of the relative consumptions must be made afterwards, thus eliminating the risk of calculation errors.
• the consumption division logic namely the logic controlling the drawing of the energy
• the control unit controls the switch based on a shared utility use time unit, which is divided in a proportionate manner relative to the ownership share rates. Therefore, in this way, the control unit will command the connection of the switch to a particular power supply line depending on the ownership share rates owned by the user of that power supply line.
• the power supply lines owned by users with larger ownership share rates will be connected to the switch for a grater amount of time than the power supply lines owned by users with smaller ownership share rates.
• the control unit naturally is configured to store in a memory the time record of the position of the switch, so that, at the subsequent restart of the shared utility, the control unit forces the switch to start from the point in which it was at the moment of the previous interruption. In this way, within a reasonable time frame, like the one established by the due dates for the payment of common expenses in a block of flats, it is possible to complete a number of cycles sufficient to represent the correct division of shared consumptions per ownership share rate.
• the switch control logic depends on the identification of the user who activated the shared utility. The method comprises the preliminary step of identifying the user who activated the shared utility. This identification can take place in a very simple manner, providing personalized use keys, keypad codes different from user to user, remote controls with different frequencies, etc.
• the apparatus does not require a shared power meter and the allocation of costs is not subjected to calculation errors, but also, in addition, the cost for the use of the utility at the request of the user is exclusively allocated to the user who actually requested the performance, thus not burdening other users.
• the presence of the identification devices does not exclude, per se, the possibility of allocating anyway the costs based on the ownership share rates. Indeed, there can be a key or a code to activate the switch based on the different ownership share rates or the power supply line of the user who activated the shared utility can simply be the first one to supply the power of a selection cycle. In this last case, the user who activated the shared utility will have a greater costs, though without having to bare alone the costs of the total consumption. In case of excessive drawing of energy from a utility relative to the respective ownership share rate, the system is provided with a memory capable of making up for this drawing in the subsequent cycles .
• the apparatus can naturally comprise a plurality of shared utilities, each provided with its own switch. In this case, it is possible for more than one single shared utility to be connected to the same power supply line at the same time .
• the apparatus can comprise switches arranged in parallel and connected to same shared utility, so as to draw the energy requested at the same time by two or more users. In this case, again, an excessive drawing of energy by users with smaller ownership share rates or who did not request the activation of the utility will be compensated during the subsequent cycles.
• the invention was described in terms of the method for controlling the switch. However, the invention also relates to the relative apparatus for carrying out the method.
• the apparatus in its nominal for, comprises:
• At least one switch connected on one side to the shared utility and on the other side configured to selectively connect to one or the other user power supply for allocating on the respective user power meter the current power consumption of the shared utility;
• control unit configured for controlling the switch.
• the control unit is configured for controlling the switch in such a way that it is selectively connected to one or the other power supply line according to the modes described above .
• the apparatus can comprise a plurality of shared utilities, each provided with the relative switch; each shared utility can be associated with a plurality of switches in parallel so as to face large power requests, which could not be fulfilled using one single line.
• FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a first application example of the invention
• FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a second application example of the invention.
• FIG. 3 shows a diagram of a third application example of the invention.
• FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment example of the invention.
• This figure shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus 1 for implementing the method according to the invention.
• This example comprises four power supply lines 2 owned by four different users.
• Each power supply line is provided with its own power meter 3 for counting the power consumption of the relative power supply line 2.
• Number 4 schematically indicates a shared utility, which can be activated after having established a communication with one of the four power supply lines 2.
• a switch 5 which on one side is connected to the shared utility 4 and on the other side is provided with a switcher capable of being selectively connected to all four power supply lines 2.
• the switch preferably temporarily goes through an unloading condition 6 before shifting from one power supply line to another one.
• the possible movement of the switcher is schematically shown in figure 1 with arrow F and is controlled by a suitable control unit 7, or electronic control unit.
• Said control unit 7 is further connected to database 8 containing the information concerning the division of the shared utility into ownership shared rate owned by the four users.
• the database 8 can be used and/or changed remotely upon authorization.
• a first profile could belong to the manager of the utilities according to the invention.
• the second profile could be the one of the energy provider powering the apparatus, which, having the correct consumptions available, could issue invoices for the single users already containing the share of consumption of the shared utility.
• the control unit 4 controls the switch so that it shifts from a power supply unit to the another one depending on the aforesaid ownership share rates.
• the control unit 4 controls the switch 5 so that it shifts to another power supply line 2. This procedure goes on until the switch 5 has been coupled to all power supply lines. The cycle is repeated in case the use of the utility goes on.
• control unit 4 stores in a memory which power supply line was connected to the switch last, so that, upon subsequent use of the shared utility, it can couple to the switch to that very power supply line until the predetermined drawing time is reached.
• Figure 2 shows a second application example of the invention.
• the only difference with respect to figure 1 is the presence of two shared utilities 4 provided with the respective switches 5.
• the two shared utilities are drawing energy from two different power supply lines.
• the apparatus is configured so that the same power supply line can supply power to both shared utilities at the same time.
• Figure 3 shows a third application example of the invention .
• This example comprises an apparatus like the one figure 1, where a further series of devices were integrated.
• the control unit 7 communicates with a series of devices 9 capable of identifying which user wants to use the shared utility.
• these identification devices can be a code, a key or a remote control or any other device personalized for each single user.
• the control unit 7 controls the switch 5 so that it gets coupled to the power supply line 2 owned by that user.
• the interested user can obtain a feedback on this operation by a suitable display, which can also provide in real time an indication of the consumptions. In this way the user can control the actual consumption being assigned to his/her power meter 3.
• control unit 7 of figure 3 is capable of controlling the switch also in the mode described above, namely based on the ownership share rate and not solely based on the user who activated the shared utility.
• control unit 7 is connected to a display 11, which indicates the set control logic and a series of commands 12 to shift from a control logic to another one.
• the utility 4 is coupled to a timer device 13 capable of deactivating the shared utility after a predetermined amount of time, thus avoiding excessive consumptions due, for example, to a shared utility accidentally left active.
• the switch can physically be coupled to all power supply lines at the same time and draw energy from the different power supply lines depending on the logic described above based on the ownership share rates.
• This configuration is particularly efficient in case the shared utility requires an energy peak such that it can be borne only by the simultaneous supply of power from a plurality of power supply lines.
• all power supply lines simultaneously supply power.
• the drawn quantity is divided depending on the ownership share rates of the shared utility and the switch acts as a shutter.
• the invention envisages the presence of known safety devices and of a parallel structure where there are different switches connected to a shared utility and capable of powering it drawing energy from different users.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
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• Power Engineering (AREA)
• Operations Research (AREA)
• Quality & Reliability (AREA)
• Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
• Supply And Distribution Of Alternating Current (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=60991033

Family Applications (1)

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• 2017
  • 2017-08-01 IT IT102017000088560A patent/IT201700088560A1/it unknown
• 2018
  • 2018-08-01 WO PCT/IB2018/055782 patent/WO2019026001A1/en unknown
  • 2018-08-01 EP EP18759408.0A patent/EP3662556A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2018-08-01 CN CN201880055017.3A patent/CN111316520A/zh active Pending

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