GB2508362A - Retrofit device allowing smart control of a domestic appliance - Google Patents

Abstract

A retrofit actuator device for attaching to an appliance such as a washing machine provides smart control of the appliance. The device includes an assembly 19 having an attachment mechanism such as a suction cup 20 for attaching the device over the start button of the appliance, an electronics assembly board 23, communication means 25, and actuator 28. A button (40, figure 3) for selecting delay start and a button (42) for selecting immediate start are provided. When delay start is selected the device may await communication that a local renewable resource is available before triggering the actuator to start the appliance by pushing the start button. The device may be designed to look like a human hand. A demand response system using a population of such devices is also claimed.

Description

DESCRIPTION

Background to the Invention:

The present invention relates generally to systems, methods and retrofit actuator devices for appliances, such as washing machines, dryers, consumer electronic devices, switches, for the purpose of improving smart control, such as remote control and automation, or shifting electrical operation and demand profiles of end appliances.

Whilst many modern devices may eventually support certain smart control features, for local or remote services, many such features are difficult to access and adopt by consumers, or are not accessible on older devices. It is therefore desirable to have retrofit systems or kits that can be applied on existing appliances, to both provide certain smart control features -without needing to replace or upgrade the device, or make access to those features simpler or more engaging.

Historically, by example, many washing machines support a delay' feature or button, but are rarely used or ignored by consumers -partly due to lack of financial or other incentives, or low understanding of the feature and purpose. Whilst new washing machines may become smarter and provide increasing scope for automation it is unclear the degree to which these will be technically accessible and used or adopted by consumers, or utilities.

An opportunity of such smart services, is to be able to shift large populations of demand from end appliances, from air conditioning units, thorough to high load devices, such as electric vehicle, washing machine and mechanical/heating devices, by minutes or a few hours in order to balance overall energy consumption across a local or national network, under demand response programs.

A critical problem and opportunity is therefore to make existing appliances smarter and accessible to such programs, and also to improve the access, usability and adoption of demand response options.

Summary and description of the Invention

A general object of the invention is to provide a retrofit actuator device to improve the smart control of an existing appliance, by attachment, in close proximity or adjacent to the appliance, and where the actuator can be triggered locally by physical means or triggered electronically by remote communication means.

Where said smart control, could provide services and further objects of the invention such as I. facilitating a local remote or mobile device to trigger the device II. tracking data of when the appliance is in use, requested to be in use or track actual energy use, locally or reporting data remotely to a third party Ill. scheduling or delaying the operation of the device to a more optimal time or parameter IV. enabling third parties to manage or check the device status Said scheduling or delaying the operation of the device, could be configured to optimize certain parameters, such as time -delaying to a more convenient time for the occupant, assistant (e.g. cleaner), or a return time, linking to a time when energy supply is cheaper, from grid, or free from local renewable resources (e.g. solar PV), or linked to greater available energy supply from green sources (e.g. wind generation availability), or at times of low carbon intensity on grid electricity or dependent on weather or temperature.

Scheduling could also be enabled and operation delayed based on demand needs of neighbours, local utility, local generation supply, local DNO-network provider or national electricity grid and generation demands. Scheduling decisions could involve mechanisms such as brokerage, auctioning, tariff plans, triggers on grid supply frequency, local voltage limits, intelligent autonomous agents and other market and algorithmic means.

A specific further object of the invention is to allow washing machine appliances to be triggered either directly by the consumer or made available as a resource to start running within an acceptable delay, e.g. 1 -3 hours, where a check is made to delay schedule based on whether local solar is generating excess energy, or whether a third-party or network participant could benefit by delaying the electricity demand, and aggregating such delays across multiple devices to create a significant scheduled demand reduction or shift.

As an example of demand, a typical modern washing machine may draw 1-2KW of power at times in the first hour, on average say 800Wh in the first hour, 200Wh in second hour depending on temperature and cycle setting, though this average is falling with recent moves to lower temperature washing powders and appliances with higher energy efficiency rating.

Typically individual household washing machines are on average in use around 5% of the day-time, meaning average normalized per household electricity consumption from washing machines (e.g. in the UK) is estimated at 40-50w per hour between Sam-lOpm, with minor peaks in the morning/evening, typically Sam and 8pm. The UK has a high (approx. 95% of 25m household) penetration of washing machines and/or dryers, with average life approx. 10-12 years and over 2 million units sold per annum. This implies that an average lm+ devices are use at any day-time hour, i.e. 1GW of demand, or over 4 TWh pa.

Such smart control could therefore provide an example lkWh of load that could be shifted by a few hours, per appliance that is in use at the requested time, and made available for a shift. This will typically be from a larger, e.g. x 20 population of devices supporting the technology' of smart control feature, and larger population still reflecting what percentage of devices with the technology are actually accessible for a shift -based on user choice, awareness or urgency for washing, or acceptance of behavioural change. A consequence is that a larger number of devices with smart features will be needed to reliably enable even a lkWh shift. A key driver in accessing smart control is also simplicity to the consumer in making the resource available, and common standards or accessibility for networks is to facilitate automating or managing such resources.

A specific object of the invention is therefore to provide a simple easy choice for the consumer of selecting an instant (usual run) of the appliance, by pressing a start button that typically will be on the actuator device in close proximity or above the actual start button, Or, to select a delay ok button'. This delay button typically being set once at set-up to be a Solar Run' option for households wishing to leverage day-time solar resources, or set to a maximum delay period agreed for the consumer, that will typically reflect lifestyle and usage behaviour, e.g. an office worker might be agreeable to a longer day time delay, if they typically set machines to wash when leaving for work but only need it done in time for return. In other embodiments the retrofit device could support varying the delay time on usage, or set remotely via a web application running on a computer or smart-phone.

When the start button' on the actuator device is pressed, the device will typically power-up, and make a note of this activation in local memory or storage, and optionally communicate this over wireless means to a nearby host, smart device, hub or meter, and then optionally power-down.

When the delay ok' button is pressed the actuator device will power up, check either a stored state or make an enquiry to a local or remote service with the availability of the device for a delay, or in a Solar run' mode, check the current schedule, seasonal estimate or actual forecast of local solar generation or directly measure whether the solar is currently being exported, and by algorithmic needs, start the appliance on solar export or on the remote trigger, or if no response is received or no local generation capacity available start the appliance within a fixed delay.

Said algorithmic means prioritizing that the appliance will always run with a fixed maximum delay, and resilient to lack of response from sensor or third-party resource, to ensure the consumer trusts that delay ok' still runs the appliance within a fixed period.

Said remote service, may typically be configured to aggregate multiple distributed resources as a population of retrofit actuator devices' and smart appliances with enabled smart control, to provide a large number of potential demand for shift. Said service typically may broker this demand, based on a rolling forecast of typical availability of resources from its managed population, to network participants, such as Demand Side aggregators, DNO (distribution network operators), or TSO Transmission service operators) such as National Grids. In the UK for example, the National Grid organizes futures and contracts for STOR -Short Term Operating reserve, where demand side resources can be monetized when made available for delayed or reduced operation on demand. This typically operates at MWh scale, with smaller brokers, intermediating such demand requests from smaller demand side providers.

Said remote service by algorithmic means may run a rolling offer of demand based on prior measurement and current resources providing messages to the system, and then dynamically trigger delays to resources making enquiries based on contractual commitments to deliver demand reductions or current or real-time demands. Said remote services may be operated as a market system or by individual network participants or asset owners, where retrofit devices are provided and owned on behalf of a participant, such as a utility company. For example, a network company might provide retail consumers directly or under a suitable energy efficiency grant, and link their operation to specific tariff models, such as tariff models that reduce peak time usage or charge a higher premium for peak hours, to help consumers avoid scheduling high load appliances during peak hours. The utility may then also chose to make available delay and demand reduction to balance their wholesale purchase of electricity or to commercialize the demand shift opportunity or excess capacity to market.

A further object of the invention, is to use the retrofit actuator device, to gather better data on usage of appliances, via the ability to log when the device is triggered manually or by remote means, to enable tracking of time and frequency of use of appliances by end users. Such information enables better demand side modelling, categorization of the end user into behaviour types, additional use data to correlate with overall smart meter usage (top-down) to improve disaggregation of power usage by removing known appliances (such as washing machines), or improving measurement of the actual demand profile of the appliance via measurement with a smart meter and identifying the start time. Such measurement may in preferred embodiments by used by remote services or local applications to target advice, such as lower temperature settings or washing powders, or more energy efficient or other related energy efficient appliances. Such measurement and usage time may also allow identifying the make and model of the appliance, by comparing the use cycle, or to identify correlated appliance use, such as followed by a separate dryer. Similarly back to back start times may provide extra granularity on washing behaviour, e.g. separate runs for colours / white, or multiple runs indicating larger wash weights, and help further target specific improvement advice on appliances.

A further benefit of data tracked over a period of time, would be to provide annualized advice on washing machine cost/behaviour, enable predicative forecasts where behaviour is routine, for the demand aggregator on expected demand from the appliance, e.g. by scoring the probability of a use event based on historic use and updating this to allow a better aggregate prediction of probabilistic availability for a demand shift, measuring the proportion of time an appliance is used in start/now mode vs made available as a demand resource, and enabling data to be used as a proxy for predicting how the household demand might be shiftable with further directly enabled smart appliances, or in the future. The latter may enable, based on tracking and scoring household type, a more accurate profile for future demand usage by smart appliances at grid level, by empirically forecasting the likely replacement rate and adoption rate of smart features as populations of appliances become smart enabled.

A further object of the present invention is to raise the awareness of demand side opportunities by changing user behaviour -such as leveraging local solar resources or delaying operation, and to make the experience more engaging. Specifically the retrofit actuator device provides opportunity to raise awareness through data and control via web or smartphone, and through visibility when attached to the appliance, and through the ornamental design of the device.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the ornamental design is shaped to resemble a hand, such as a glove or paw shaped form aligned over the start button, or overall as a hand with finger extended over the start button. In such a configuration, the hand or finger would be pressed down over the start button to directly trigger the device, or a separate delay ok' button on the body of the device pressed to trigger the button via the actuator and lever mechanism on a calculated or remotely checked delay. Said overall device, thereby acts as a helping hand' as an automated hand that helps trigger the appliance to optimize desired behaviour or performance.

In preferred embodiments said device supports embedded electronics that can be made accessible or programmed by consumers or providers to provide value added features, or custom data tracking or analysis, or deployed more generally to trigger other switches or appliances of interest for consumers. In preferred embodiments such electronics may support modules accessible to open source communities such as Ardinuo, Rasberry Pi, Electric Imp and other generic modules.

In a preferred embodiment of the retrofit actuator device, said retrofit means is achieved via a manually attachable suction device, which is placed on a surface of the appliance and locked into position by pressing a suitable lever, enabling the device to be freely placed to align appropriately with the start buttons and to beheld securely in place when attached. In other embodiments said retrofit mechanism could involve prongs or clips that fasten to grooves in the appliance or to corners or surfaces. Said device could be rotated and lever arm or finger mechanism extended and locked to allow line tuning in the placement and positioning of the pressure push point over the start button as will be illustrated below in the accompanying diagrams.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the invention together with the detailed description serve to explain principles of embodiments of the invention: FIG 1-illustrates a high-level schematic of elements of the system, comprising a retrofit actuator device attached to an example appliance being a washing machine, with communication to optional local consumer device, local energy meters, sensors or devices, remote services and third parties, where said retrofit actuator device is used to provide smart control over the start/delay button FIG 2-shows an example preferred embodiment of the retrofit actuator device as a 3D view with cover removed, together with FIG 3 showing the device with ornamental hand shaped cover attached FIG 4-Provides a plan and side view diagram of a retrofit actuator device with cover removed FIGS-Provides a plan and side view diagram of a retrofit actuator device with ornamental hand and finger shaped cover attached

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG 1, which shows a high level schematic of elements of the system for smart control of appliances, comprising; a retrofit actuator device (1) attached to an example appliance (2) illustrated as a washing machine (3) in this schematic, suitable to provide a smart control over the start/delay button (31), with communication means to at least some of i) a local consumer device (4) illustrated as a mobile phone (5) or a consumer computer device (6); ii) a local smart energy appliance (7) illustrated as a smart meter (8) or smart energy hub (9); iii) a local renewable supply sensor (10) illustrated as an export meter (11) or nearby sensor clamp (12); iv) a remote service (13) for aggregating data or current appliance demand need message (14) e.g. availability for demand delay, analysis of said data or messages, and responding with a demand response requirement such as delaying a demand need where said remote service may be in further communication with third party resources (15) or aware of grid demand request needs (16). where said remote service may typically aggregate a plurality of retrofit actuator (1) devices and demand messages, illustrated here by 17, or demand messages from other smart appliances or future appliances with embedded smart control features, illustrated here by 18.

Referring now to FIG 2 which shows an example preferred embodiment of the retrofit actuator device as a 3D view with cover removed, as an assembly 19 comprised of an attachment mechanism 20 for attaching to an appliance 2, shown here as a suction cup 21 with mechanical lever 22 to lock in place, an electronics assembly board 23 with components and circuitry for supporting electronic control 24, communication means 25, data storage 26, battery control and battery units 27, actuator 28, sensor button 29 for the delay ok or solar run mode, sensor button 30 for detecting a manual selection of start now' on the start/delay 31 button on the appliance 2, where said assembly 19 typically comprises a frame 32, supporting said attachment mechanism 20, electronics assembly board 23, battery units 27, actuator 28, and pivots 33 with optional mechanical spring means 34, for attaching a lever arm 35, where said arm may contain sub-structure such as sliding mechanism for extending length 36 and locking pins 37, and where said lever arm 35 supports a tip 38 supporting the sensor button 30 and optionally a spring or rubber surface 38 for altering or improving the contact when depressed with the start/delay 31 button on the appliance.

Said assembly 19 as further illustrated in FIG 3 can also support a cover 39 that may be ornamental in nature and containing an area or sub-section 40 suitable to act as a button area for said sensor button 29 to select the delay ok or solar run mode, and said lever arm 35 supporting a cover 41 that may be ornamental in nature, where in this example preferred embodiment shown in FIG 3 said ornamental form is shown as a hand shape, and said cover 41 as a finger shape with a tip area 42 for the Start button over the sensor button 30.

Referring now to FIG 4 which shows a plan FIG 4A and side views 4B and 4C of a retrofit actuator device described in Fig 2 with cover removed, showing the aforementioned assembly in more detail.

Referring now to FIG 5 which shows a plan FIG 5A and side views SB and SC of a retrofit actuator device described in Fig 2 with ornamental cover attached, showing the aforementioned assembly in more detail.

Wherein a preferred embodiment of the system method and process flow, a consumer pressing the start button area 42 on the retrofit actuator device, causes the cover 41 to mechanically move depressing button 30 (creating a positive feedback click) and compressing cover 38 to trigger the button 31 on the appliance 3, causing the appliance to start in a usual manner for the selected program, at the same time depressing the button 30 turns on the electronics assembly 23 so that the start time can be logged in data storage 26 or communicated via 25 with a suitable message 14 to other local or remote devices, and then optionally shuts down the power 27 or goes into sleep mode. Said data 14 being useful by remote services 13 and third parties 15 and 16 to monitor end user appliance patterns and frequency of use.

Wherein a preferred embodiment of the system method and process flow, a consumer pressing the delay ok button area 40 on the retrofit actuator device, causes the sensor button 29 to be activated and turn on or wake up the electronics assembly 23 to send a message 14 that the appliance demand is needed but is available for a delay, to remote services 13, and waits for either a response based on whether the remote service wishes to use the delay, and shift the demand by up to a pre-set fixed number of hours. The system then receives a time required to delay the start, checks that this is within the agreed maximum delay, or in the absence of a response sets a shorter time interval, and actuates the device via the actuator mechanism 28 which has the effect of acting as a lever or moving the arm 35 to mechanically press the tip 38 to trigger the sensor button 31 on the appliance 3. optionally the system might listen for a sound response (indicating the appliance has started) or communicate with a smart meter or other local central load measurement, to confirm the device has started. In further embodiments the system might periodically activate after a further time interval to listen or communicate with a local load measurement to provide data on cycle length or whether the device has completed a run. Such data could optionally be made available or sent as an alert to a consumer device 4.

Wherein a preferred embodiment of the system method and process flow, a consumer pressing the delay ok button area 40 labelled as Solar Run', follows a similar process whereby the electronics assembly 23 sends a communication or reads a setting from a local renewable resource 10 e.g. to determine if solar power is being exported from the property as a mechanism for triggering the actuator 28, or on a software algorithm of checking a forecast such as current time, prior history, weather forecast or demand forecast.

In preferred embodiments said local or remote service 13 could analyse use data and report back advice on usage, energy cost, or targeted improvement advice, after a period of time by electronic or other means. Such advice might also correlate or use actual energy use measurement from smart meters via the time-stamp of start time recorded, to create more accurate feedback.

Reporting over a period of time may also provide a financial payment back to the household, in recognition of potential value by the third party of using demand shift over a period of time, or linked to special tariffs for the household. Where households have a time of day or special use tariff, the system could support sending alerts or advice back to the household if the appliance is being used at a less favourable or expensive time, or optionally use such price data to drive a delay trigger, where the user has selected the delay ok action.

It will be appreciated that whilst the figures and description refers to preferred embodiments of a retrofit actuator device in detail relating to a helping hand' device attached to a washing machine appliance, and corresponding example of how such devices in aggregate could be used by remote server or cloud based resources to enable an aggregate demand shift for grid beneficiaries, that other embodiments of the invention could be applied to control or automate other electronic devices such as electronic switches such as light switches or plug socket switches, or other switches on electronic devices from appliances such as coffee machines, pumps, factory equipment, factory controls, other devices.

It will similarly be appreciated that the inventions described herein relating to systems for aggregating demand and enabling demand shifts teaches various approaches of wider benefit to smart grid systems in general.