GB2444958A

GB2444958A - A consumer's energy management system

Info

Publication number: GB2444958A
Application number: GB0625319A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jeremy Steven Mustard
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-12-19
Filing date: 2006-12-19
Publication date: 2008-06-25
Also published as: GB0625319D0

Abstract

An electrical energy monitoring system consists of a number of electrical energy monitoring modules communicating with a central processing and display unit, where the data is processed and turned into meaningful displays, for the consumer to understand what they are using their electrical energy on and to help them to decide on how they can reduce cost and the impact on the environment.

Description

1 2444958 A consumer's electrical energy monitoring system This

invention relates to a system to help the average consumer understand the environmental and cost impact of the electrical appliances in their household.

The average consumer now has dozens of electrical devices in their household ranging from white goods such as fridges and washing machines to stereos, TVs, DVD players and the like. Most consumers would like to reduce their energy consumption both for cost and environmental impact reasons but usually find the effort required to do so oil-putting.

Electrical energy costs continue to rise and the carbon footprint of the country grows Product vendors produce products that are more energy efficient but few consumers operate them in the most energy efficient way -for instance leaving a computer and its monitor turned on because the label says the monitor is energy efficient is clearly not as energy efficient as turning the equipment off when not in use, but few consumers will be aware how much energy is consumed in this "standby" mode.

This invention is intended to be a very simple way for a consumer to monitor their electrical energy consumption and to see the effect for themselves on new goods, new operating regimes, etc. The idea is to measure the electrical energy consumed by each item (as selected by the user) and transmit this back to a central processing unit in the house. This will display simple reports such as percentage of electrical energy consumed by each monitored item, cost of each monitored item and trends of electrical energy consumption to show what happens at different times of a day, week or month.

The overall idea is to make consumers more aware of electrical energy consumption, helping them through simple visualisation realise where most of their electrical energy cost goes, what happens when items are left on when not in use and the effect on their bill when new operating regimes or equipment are used.

This system is not intended for control of electrical energy usage or for fiscal applications although technically these requirements could be met with further work.

It is envisaged that consumers who wish to reduce their electrical energy bills and/or help reduce the environmental impact of electrical energy consumption would wish to purchase such a system. The system would be as easy to install as a wireless router for broadband PC communications. Ii is also envisaged that new build housing would include these systems as standard and that electricity companies would offer discounted tariffs for consumers who agree to deploy such a system and agree to reduce their electrical energy consumption over a set period.

The invention combines standard measurement and communications technology with data processing and display software to produce a complete system.

The invention will now he described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which figure 1 shows a simple block diagram overview of the system.

Claims

Claims An electrical energy monitoring system comprising a configurable

number of electrical energy monitoring modules, a central processing unit to collect data from the electrical energy monitoring modules, and a set of consumer selectable reports to allow visualisation of the collected data.
2. An electrical energy monitoring system according to claim I, in which the electrical energy monitoring modules operate from a very low power and so can he powered using the electrical energy being monitored with little impact on overall energy consumption. As a consequence there is no maintenance, such as battery replacement required, and the modules can be deployed anywhere where there is an electrical energy source.
3. An electrical energy monitoring system according to claim 1, in which the electrical energy monitoring modules communicate with a central processing unit using wireless communications As a consequence there is no wiring to deploy and the modules can be installed anywhere within the household.
4. An electrical energy monitoring system according to claim 1, in which the central processing unit is capable of permanently storing all the data collected from the electrical energy monitoring modules installed.
5. An electrical energy monitoring system according to claim I, in which the central processing unit is capable of displaying, via a built in screen which is mounted in any desirable household location by the consumer, a set of reports showing i) percentage of electrical energy consumed by each monitored item (and the unmorijtored remainder); ii) the cost of the electrical energy consumed by each monitored item over a selectable period (default 1 2 months) using the tariff entered by the user as provided by the electricity company; iii) the electrical energy consumed by a monitored item over a selectable period (default 24 hours).