GB2270168A

GB2270168A - Energy monitoring

Info

Publication number: GB2270168A
Application number: GB9314195A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Paul Mason
Original assignee: Oxley Developments Co Ltd
Current assignee: Oxley Developments Co Ltd
Priority date: 1992-07-09
Filing date: 1993-07-09
Publication date: 1994-03-02
Also published as: GB9314195D0; GB9214626D0

Abstract

Device having a display which is arranged to indicated visually the amount of electricity (or other utility) that an individual appliance such as a fridge, or individual circuit of a plurality of circuits served by a common fuse box, uses and has accumulated in a certain period. The device may be arranged to store the relevant tariff of the electricity (or other utility) supply and to use this to provide a visual indication of the running total of the actual cost to the user of the accumulated energy usage. <IMAGE>

Description

DESCRIPTION ENERGY MONITORING The present invention is concerned with the presentation of visual information in relation to utility usage.

With the increasing costs of supply, there is a significant demand for further "instant" information to the user concerning the amount and cost of electricity or other utility (e.g. gas) that equipment or premises uses.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a device having a display which is arranged to indicate visually the amount of electricity (or other utility) that an individual appliance such as a fridge, or individual circuit of a plurality of circuits served by a common fuse box, uses and has accumulated in a certain period.

Advantageously, the device is adapted to store the relevant tariff of the electricity (or other utility) supply and to use this to provide a visual indication of the running total of the actual cost to the user of the accumulated energy usage. In this case, the device preferably includes a non-volatile memory for storage of the current tariff by the user.

The device is preferably an in-line unit disposed at a convenient location within the circuit containing the appliance whose energy consumption is to be monitored. This device could, for example, take the form of a plug adaptor which can be interposed between the plug connected to the appliance and the normal power supply socket. In another embodiment, the device could be built into the plug or socket itself.

In a further embodiment, the device could be incorporated into a wall mounted unit.

Where the device is not intended to monitor individual appliances but rather to monitor power usage within one of a plurality of circuits of a supply system controlled by a common fuse/distribution box, then the device could be disposed within or on the distribution box itself. In this case, there could be a plurality of devices associated with respective, different ones of said circuits.

By use of the present invention, a user of a power utility can be provided with instant visual information as to how much energy has been used in a given period and, preferably, how much that energy has actually cost.

The invention is described further hereinafter, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a block diagram of the principal components of one possible embodiment in accordance with the present invention.

Referring to the drawing, block 10 identifies an electrical supply, such as the normal mains, which provides power to drive an electrical appliance 12, such as an electric fire, fridge and the like, via an electric cable 14. Disposed within the connection between the power supply 10 and the appliance 12 is a device 16 in accordance with the invention. The device 16 can be housed for example within the supply system itself, e.g. in a wall mounted power socket, or within a plug connecting the appliance cable 14 to the supply socket, or within a unit disposed physically between the appliance and such a plug.

The device 16 includes a conventional means 17 of measuring the power in the cable 14, i.e. the power being used by the appliance 12. Such power-measuring means 17 may include, for example, a current transduceritransformer and a voltage detector which can provide signals representative of the current in the cable 14 and the operating voltage on the cable 14, to enable a signal representative of electrical power to be established from these signals. Signal conditioning circuitry 18 and an analogue to digital converter 20 process the latter signals and feed corresponding digital signals to a microcomputer 22 for signal processing and calculation purposes.

The microcomputer 22 drives an optical/visual readout display 24, such as a multi-digit LCD display.

The display can selectively indicate, for example, the instantaneous power being used by the appliance 12, or the cumulative power which has been used in a certain period, e.g. since the appliance 12 was switched on or since the device 16 was last reset to zero.

Advantageously, the device 16; includes a nonvolatile memory 26 for storing, inter alia, the current tariff rate for electricity. The latter rate can be used by the microcomputer 22 to convert the cumulative power reading (e.g. kilowatt hours) into the actual cost to date to the user (in pounds). A manual entry means 28 enables the memory 26 and/or micro computer 22 to be updated with current tariff information. The manual entry means 25 can also enable different information to be selected for display by the display device 24 e.g. power, accumulated power, cost of power to date etc.

Claims

1. A device having a display which can indicate visually a monetary amount corresponding to the amount of electricity, or other utility, that an individual appliance, such as a fridge, or individual circuit of a plurality of circuits served by a common fuse box, has used in a certain period.

2. A device having a display which is arranged to indicate visually the amount of electricity, or other utility, that an individual appliance, such as a fridge, or individual circuit of a plurality of circuits served by a common fuse box, uses and has accumulated in a certain period.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 or 2, which is adapted to store the relevant tariff of the electricity (or other utility) supply and to use this to provide a visual indication of the running total of the actual cost to the user of the accumulated energy usage.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3, which includes a non-volatile memory for storage of the current tariff by the user.

5. A device as claimed in claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, comprising an in-line unit disposed at a convenient location within the circuit containing the appliance whose energy consumption is to be monitored.

6. A device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, in the form of a plug adaptor which can be interposed between the plug connected to the appliance and the normal power supply socket.

7. A device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, which is built into a power supply plug which is to connect said appliance to the power supply, or is built into the power supply socket which receives a plug connected to the appliance.

8. A device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5 in which the device is incorporated into a wallmounted unit.

9. A device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5 wherein, for use in the situation where the device is not intended to monitor individual appliances but rather to monitor power usage within one of a plurality of circuits of a supply system controlled by a common fuse/distribution box, the device is disposed within or on the distribution box itself.

10. A device as claimed in claim 9, wherein there is a plurality of devices associated with respective, different ones of said circuits.

11. A device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.