JP2008165270A - Switchboard and electric product information management system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a switchboard and an electric product information management system for actively applying information necessary only for those required from among many electric products. <P>SOLUTION: An information management device 103 is connected through a distribution network 104 to domestic switchboards 105<SB>1</SB>to 105<SB>M</SB>of each of households 101<SB>1</SB>to 101<SB>M</SB>. Each electric product 102 communicates with the domestic switchboard 105 in a household to apply the product identification information to the domestic switchboard 105. Therefore, when the information management device 103 broadcasts product relevant data, whether or not the product relevant data are belonging to the pertinent electric product is discriminated, and only when the discrimination result is positive, the content is fetched and displayed, and the content is used by the electric product. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a switchboard for supplying electricity to various electric appliances arranged at home and work, and an electric product information management system for managing information related to the electric products connected to the switchboard.

  Many electrical appliances are used at home and at work. There are many types of electrical products. In the workplace, maintenance contracts may be made for office equipment such as copiers and electrical equipment such as air conditioners. For such electrical products to be maintained, work such as periodic inspections is performed by specialized maintenance personnel, and efforts are made to keep them in the best condition. In addition, when a problem occurs for some reason, these maintenance personnel rush to repair by telephone or e-mail.

  However, for electric products for which maintenance contracts are not made, the user self-management is a principle. Therefore, it is the actual situation that electric appliances that are not covered by the maintenance contract in the workplace and most electric appliances in the home are repaired when an actual failure occurs. However, since electrical products are usually supplied with power from commercial power supplies, depending on the type of failure, they may output unwanted radio waves and sounds, or internal electrical components may rise to abnormal temperatures. There is. As a result, there is a risk of causing trouble to others and, in some cases, a fire.

  Therefore, a system that encloses a postcard for product registration in an electrical product and performs user registration of the product has conventionally existed. This system has an advantage that when there is a defect in the sold electric product, repair and collection can be smoothly performed based on the registered user data to prevent an accident from occurring.

  However, even if a product user registration is requested, 100% of purchasers do not respond to the registration. Further, even a purchaser who has performed user registration may give the product to another person. Moreover, it often moves from the address where user registration is performed to another place and forgets to notify this. Therefore, for example, when a manufacturer of an electrical product performs a recall for repairing a specific product free of charge, all users of the target electrical product are subject to notification, and cannot be handled completely by mail or e-mail.

  Moreover, many electrical products do not have a compulsory system that can identify the user of the product and its address, like the automobile insurance system and the car inspection system. Therefore, when a recall occurs for an electrical product, it is necessary for manufacturers and sales companies to carry out nationwide advertisements using advertising media such as television, radio, and newspapers, which entails a huge cost. there were. Furthermore, in order to notify all users, it is necessary to repeatedly execute such advertisements, which is not only expensive, but also requires time for dissemination, and it is difficult to respond to an emergency situation.

  Furthermore, when notification is made to the user using the advertising medium in this way, notification is made to a person other than the user of the electrical product, and even the user has completed the notification. The notification is made to the person in duplicate. Therefore, advertisements that are not necessary must be watched with caution until it is understood that they are not necessary, which is cumbersome.

  By the way, it has been proposed to monitor household equipment including various electric appliances in the home via the Internet (for example, see Patent Document 1). In this proposal, the power supply information network in the dwelling unit is connected to the Internet via a special communication device. When there is a change in the amount of power in the living equipment, the dwelling unit notifies the management server on the Internet, and a maintenance plan for the living equipment is received and displayed on this special communication device.

  In this proposal, the power information integrated distribution board can control the power supplied to the entire living equipment using the power supply control method developed using the power line carrier technology. For this reason, the operating state of each household equipment can be monitored by the power supply state, and the power usage state in the home can be notified to the management server side.

In addition, a proposal has been made to attach a plurality of power line communication devices to each household power line and control the power consumption of each of them (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 2001-338213 A (the 0031 paragraph, the 0039 paragraph, the 0041 paragraph, the 0043 paragraph, FIG. 1) JP 2002-344365 A (paragraphs 0044 to 0046, FIG. 6)

  In this way, when summarizing the proposals made in the past, the management server only grasps the power consumption of the daily equipment connected to the power line, and only passively responds to the notification. Therefore, it has been impossible to provide active and positive information such as widely notifying the recall and voluntarily dealing with defects of individual electrical products. That is, there is a problem in that necessary information cannot be provided promptly for a specific electrical product as a whole.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a switchboard and an electrical product information management system capable of actively giving necessary information only to necessary ones among many electrical products.

  In the first aspect of the present invention, (a) a power supply side power line, (b) a load side power line connecting an electrical product, and (c) a power line carrier using a power line from the electrical product connected to the load side power line Product identification information acquisition means for acquiring product identification information for distinguishing these electric products from other electric products by communication; and (d) product identification information of each electric product acquired by the product identification information acquisition means. And (e) whether the product-related data sent from the outside relates to the electrical product connected to the load-side power line is stored in the product identification information storage means. Product identification information comparison means for distinguishing by comparing with the product identification information, and (f) the electrical product connected to the load-side power line by this product identification information comparison means. When it is determined ones incorporate content of the product-related data to and a product-related data contents capturing means to the switchboard.

  That is, in the present invention, the switchboard acquires product identification information for distinguishing each of these electrical products from other electrical products by power line carrier communication using the power line from the electrical product connected to the load side power line. ing. Then, it is determined whether or not the product-related data sent from the outside relates to the electrical product connected to the load-side power line, in comparison with the acquired and stored product identification information. When it is determined that it is related to one of the connected electrical products, the contents of the product related data are captured. Therefore, it is only necessary to broadcast the product-related data on the external device side that sends the product-related data without considering what kind of electrical product is connected to each switchboard. Therefore, it is possible to actively cope with the external device side, and the countermeasure can be speeded up.

  The contents of the product-related data captured by the product-related data content capturing means may be displayed by the data content display means provided in the switchboard, or to the applicable one of the electrical products connected to the load-side power line. May be provided. For example, the switchboard may store software necessary for the corresponding electrical product, and the corresponding electrical product may access the load side power line.

  The product related data sent from the outside may be sent via the power supply side power line, or may be sent via the Internet. A common feature is that the switchboard interposes external and internal electrical products, and the internal electrical products inform the switchboard of product identification information by power line carrier communication.

  Assuming that the type and characteristics of each electrical product connected to the switchboard can be identified by the product identification information, the power control of each electrical product against the use of power that exceeds the capacity limit of each breaker branch circuit Is possible.

  In the invention according to claim 7, (a) a power supply side power line, a load side power line connecting the electrical product, and an electrical product connected to the load side power line by power line carrier communication using a power line. Product identification information acquisition means for acquiring product identification information for distinguishing each product from other electrical products, and product identification information storage means for storing product identification information of each electrical product acquired by the product identification information acquisition means, Whether the predetermined product-related data sent from the outside relates to the electrical product connected to the load-side power line is compared with the product identification information stored in the product identification information storage means Product identification information comparison means and the product identification information comparison means when it is determined that the product identification information comparison means relates to any of the electrical products connected to the load-side power line. A plurality of switchboards having product-related data content fetching means for fetching the contents of product-related data; and (b) an information management device comprising batch transmission means for collectively sending product-related data to the plurality of switchboards; Is provided in the electrical product information management system.

  That is, in the present invention, an electrical product information management system is constituted by a plurality of switchboards and an information management device according to claim 1.

  In the invention described in claim 8, (a) a power supply side power line, a load side power line connecting the electrical product, and an electrical product connected to the load side power line by power line carrier communication using a power line from the electrical product. Product identification information acquisition means for acquiring product identification information for distinguishing each product from other electrical products, and product identification information storage means for storing product identification information of each electrical product acquired by the product identification information acquisition means, Whether the predetermined product-related data sent from the outside relates to the electrical product connected to the load-side power line is compared with the product identification information stored in the product identification information storage means Product identification information comparison means and the product identification information comparison means when it is determined that the product identification information comparison means relates to any of the electrical products connected to the load-side power line. A plurality of switchboards having product-related data content capturing means for capturing the contents of product-related data, and (b) a product identification information corresponding data portion corresponding to product identification information in the product-related data on the plurality of switchboards. Response request means for requesting a response when there is an applicable electrical product in a batch, and product related data related to the applicable electrical product to the switchboard responding to the request of the response request means An electrical product information management system is provided with an information management device comprising product related data content transmission means for transmitting content.

  That is, in the present invention, unlike the invention described in claim 7, the information management apparatus first broadcasts a request for a response of the switchboard having the related electrical product, and gives necessary information to the responding switchboard. As a result, the information management apparatus can add information that considers other attributes such as the destination location, or can give the information to the switchboard in a form in which the contents of the information are partially changed.

  According to the present invention described above, the corresponding electrical product is not directly connected to an external device using the address information in a network such as the Internet. That is, it is possible to prevent damage such that an electric product is controlled by a malicious third party through the switchboard. In addition, the information management device can broadcast data for some electrical products and let the switchboard sort the data, so it can transmit all the necessary information to a wide range and process it quickly. It is.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of the configuration of an electrical product information management system in an embodiment of the present invention. The electrical product information management system 100 is a system that manages each home appliance 102 as an electrical product of the _{first to} Mth homes 101 _{1 to} 101 _M. The information management device 103 that manages the home appliance 102 may be a device managed by a manufacturer or sales company of a specific home appliance, or a company or organization that manages home appliance information of a plurality of manufacturers or sales companies The apparatus may be used.

The information management apparatus 103 is connected to the power distribution network 104. The power distribution network 104 is connected to the home power distribution boards 105 _{1 to} 105 _M of the _{first to} Mth homes 101 _{1 to} 101 _M. An arbitrary number of household electrical appliances 102 are connected to corresponding ones of the home switchboards 105 _{1 to} 105 _M. The information management apparatus 103 is also connected to the existing Internet 106 for communication of various types of information related to home appliances. However, with the minimum configuration of the electrical product information management system 100, the Internet 106 can be excluded.

In the electrical product information management system 100 of this embodiment, the first to M-th households 101 _{1 to} 101 _M of household electrical appliances 102 are connected to the information management apparatus 103 and a power line communication system (Power Line Communications: PLC). Communication is performed according to the communication technology used. The power line carrier communication system is a technique for performing communication using power wiring. The information management apparatus 103 can execute the following management that is different from the management for the original power supply in this power line carrier communication system.

(1) Usage status of the home appliance 102 in the _{first to} Mth homes 101 _{1 to} 101 _M.
(2) Notification of a recall to a user who uses the corresponding home appliance 102X when a recall occurs in a specific home appliance of a specific company.
(3) Notification to the information management apparatus 103 when a failure occurs in the home appliance 102. And automatic repair of applicable household appliances 102 where possible.
(4) Introduction of next-generation home appliances 102.

  Although only one information management device 103 is shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of information management devices 103 may actually exist depending on the type of home appliance 102.

FIG. 2 shows an outline of the configuration of a first home switchboard arranged in the first home as an example. The configuration of the home switchboards 105 _{2 to} 105 _M of the _{second to} Mth homes 101 _{2 to} 101 _M is basically the same as that shown in FIG. Therefore, description of the home switchboard 105 ₂ to 105 _M of the configuration of the second to M at home 101 ₂ to 101 _M of the second to M will be omitted.

The first household switchboard 105 ₁ includes a main control unit 121 having a storage medium storing a CPU (Central Processing Unit) (not shown) and a control program. The main control unit 121 is connected to various circuit devices realized by software or hardware, and performs these controls.

  Among these, the communication control unit 122 communicates by the power line carrier communication method using the power line 123 on the supply source side and the load side power line 124 to which the home appliance 102 shown in FIG. 1 is connected. . The constituent home appliance registration unit 125 registers the home appliance 102 (FIG. 1) currently connected to the load-side power line 124 together with position information for each breaker branch circuit (not shown). The home appliance transmission information holding unit 126 is a part that holds information to be transmitted to the information management apparatus 103 shown in FIG. The home appliance reception information holding unit 127 is a part that holds information for the home appliance 102 sent from the information management apparatus 103.

Distribution board by the power management unit 128 is configured to power each circuit breaker branch circuit in which the first home switchboard 105 ₁ the managing measured. Operation unit 129 is adapted to have a plurality of key switches (not shown), and inputs operation information for the household distribution panel 105 ₁ of the first. The display unit 130 includes a small liquid crystal display, and displays visual information to be notified among the information held by the home appliance reception information holding unit 127. The audio output unit 131 is configured and go a notification for showing the display contents of the display unit 130 to the first home 101 ₁ residents and emergency broadcasts its contents when they occur.

  FIG. 3 shows the main part of the common circuit portion of an example of the home appliance used in this embodiment. The home appliance 102 used in the present embodiment is various products connected to the load-side power line 124 shown in FIG. The home appliance 102 includes a main control unit 141 having a storage medium storing a CPU and a control program (not shown). The main control unit 141 is connected to various circuit devices realized by software or hardware, and performs these controls.

  Among these, the communication control unit 142 communicates with the communication control unit 122 shown in FIG. 2 via the load-side power line 124 that has passed through the breaker branch circuit (not shown). The own device information storage unit 143 holds own device information including identification information such as a manufacturer name of the home electric appliance 102 as the own device, a model number indicating a product type, a manufacturing number, and the like.

  The power on / off control unit 144 is connected to the power line 124 and performs on / off control of power supply to the home appliance 102 via a built-in power relay (not shown). The failure diagnosis unit 145 is a circuit portion for diagnosing defects such as a failure of the home appliance 102 by hardware or software. The repair execution unit 146 is a circuit part that executes repair of the home appliance 102. When a redundant circuit configuration is adopted with important hardware components that are likely to fail, switching to the spare circuit is performed. If there is a problem with the built-in software, the built-in software is replaced with the upgraded software acquired and held by the home appliance reception information holding unit 127 (FIG. 2) based on the diagnosis result of the failure diagnosis unit 145. This solves the problem.

  FIG. 4 shows an outline of the configuration of the information management apparatus. The information management apparatus 103 includes a main control unit 161 having a storage medium storing a CPU and a control program (not shown). The main controller 161 is connected to various circuit devices realized by software or hardware, and performs these controls.

Among these, the communication control unit 162 is connected to the power distribution network 104 and the Internet 106 shown in FIG. Among these, about the power distribution network 104, the communication control part 162 communicates with a power line carrier communication system. The recall information storage unit 163 displays on the display unit 130 of the _first to _M-th household switchboards 105 _{1 to} 105 _M (see FIG. 1 and FIG. 2) for recalling the model number and serial number of the product to be recalled. Contains text and other information that should be used.

The new product sales promotion information storage unit 164 is a product that may be a target for replacement by purchase in relation to the _{first to} Mth households 101 _{1 to} 101 _M of the home appliances 102 shown in FIG. The sales promotion information is stored as information for prompting the purchase of. The problem-solving information storage unit 165 is used to resolve information that solves problems that are not subject to recall in the home appliance 102, or to solve problems in the case where the home appliance 102 does not directly have the download function for the latest version of the software. Contains download software.

  The recall target product handling result storage unit 166 includes a list of homes to which a recall is notified using the power distribution network 104 by the information management apparatus 103 when there is a recall target product, and the response results from these homes. Is stored. The report editing unit 167 uses the storage result of the recall target product handling result storage unit 166 to notify the handling status of the recall to the department in charge of the manufacturer or dealer using the Internet 106 on demand or periodically. It is like that.

  The operation unit 168 is for inputting operation information of the operator of the information management apparatus 103, and the display unit 169 is for presenting visual information to the operator. In addition, the information management apparatus 103 may include a printer that prints a report or the like.

FIG. 5 shows a flow of registration and current status update processing for grasping home appliances using a home switchboard. The first home switchboard 105 ₁ shown in FIG. 2 will be described as an example. The first household switchboard 105 ₁ sends a home appliance identification information transmission request to the load-side power line 124 when the ampere breaker for a contract with a power company (not shown) is turned on and the main control unit 121 is in an operating state. (Step S201). This home appliance identification information transmission request is a signal for requesting a response for identifying each home appliance 102 (FIG. 1) connected to the power line 124.

When the home appliance 102 receives this home appliance identification information transmission request by the communication control unit 142 shown in FIG. 2, the home device information including the manufacturer name, product model number, serial number, etc. stored in the home device information storage unit 143 Send. The first household switchboard 105 ₁ receives the information about the device itself from each of the subordinate home appliances 102 for each breaker branch circuit (step S202). Since the home appliance specifying information transmission request is broadcast without specifying each home appliance 102 individually, there is a case where a packet indicating own device information collides in time. In this case, as used in Ethernet (registered trademark), the home appliance 102 that sent the collided packet is requested to retransmit. In this case, these home electric appliances 102 retransmit their own device information to the first home switchboard 105 ₁ by individually delaying the time using, for example, random numbers.

In this way, the home appliance currently connected to the power line 124 of the _first home switchboard 1051 is registered in the constituent home appliance registration unit 125 (step S203). In the constituent home appliance registration unit 125, two registration areas are prepared. One is an area for registering the self-device information of all home appliances 102 connected to the power line 124 of the _first home switchboard 105 ₁ including the past, and this is for all home appliances 102 that are rarely used. This is to enable recall and necessary troubleshooting. Another area is for grasping the home appliance 102 currently connected to the power line 124 by a technique such as polling. In the latter area, position information for each breaker branch circuit is registered in addition to the self-device information of the target home appliance 102.

When the registration and the current update process described above for each home appliance 102 are completed, it is checked whether or not a predetermined set time has passed (step S204). If the set time has passed (Y), the process is started first. (Return). Set time, the default value is set, it is possible to first home switchboard 105 ₁ users appropriately changed by operating the operation unit 129 shown in FIG.

Note that the home switchboard 105 ₁ does not directly transmit the own apparatus information sent from each of the subordinate home appliances 102 to the power line 123 on the supply source side. In addition, each home appliance 102 receives information of other home appliances 102 via the power line 124, but these are discarded.

  FIG. 6 shows a state of processing of the information management apparatus when there is a recall request. When the necessary information is stored in the recall information storage unit 163 and the execution of the recall request is instructed from the operation unit 168 (step S221: Y), the information management apparatus 103 illustrated in FIG. A response request for the product to be recalled is broadcast to the power distribution network 104 using the carrier communication method (step S222).

Each home power distribution board 105 such as the first home power distribution board 105 ₁ shown in FIG. 2 collates information on the recall target products for all of the home appliances 102 registered in the home appliance registration unit 125 at present or in the past. To do. When the corresponding home appliance 102 exists, the identification number of the home switchboard 105 and home appliance identification information registered as a recall target product are sent back to the information management apparatus 103. Depending on the system, a response may be sent back to the effect that the recalled product does not exist in the home 101 (FIG. 1) of the home switchboard 105.

The information management apparatus 103 collects search results as responses from the _first to _M-th household switchboards 105 _{1 to} 105 _M (step S223). If there are a large number of target household switchboards 105, the response time in step S222 is distributed in each region, or the delay time until the response starts so that the responses are not duplicated on the home switchboard 105 side. It is necessary to devise such as setting in advance.

  When the search result collection processing is completed in this way, the information management apparatus 103 transmits the handling information for the recall to each household power distribution board 105 where the home appliance 102 to be recalled exists (step). S224). For example, when the use of the corresponding home appliance 102 is stopped, a list of dates for performing visit collection is transmitted, or when collecting by mail, information describing the method is transmitted.

Handling information for recall only sent is unknown or was recognized to those appropriate home 101 ₁ to 101 _M of the first to M is. Therefore, in this embodiment, the person in the corresponding home 101 requests that the operation unit 129 (FIG. 2) is operated to respond. Therefore, these response results are collected (step S225), and the report editing unit 167 edits the report based on the results. The report is transmitted to the person in charge of the manufacturer or sales company via the communication control unit 162 by means of communication means such as e-mail (step S226). Based on this, the person in charge can take further actions for the recall.

FIG. 7 shows sales promotion information transmission processing by the information management apparatus. When the information management apparatus 103 shown in FIG. 4 generates a sales promotion information transmission request from the operation unit 168 in a state where necessary information is stored in the new product sales promotion information storage unit 164 (step S241: Y), the power line carrier communication using grid 104 using method performs a search request processing of the first to appliances 102 home 101 ₁ to 101 _M of the M shown in FIG. 1 (step S242). At this time, the only consumer electronics 102 that may be using currently circumstances relationships of the season may be a target, all home appliances 102 that exist in the home 101 ₁ to 101 _M of the first to M You may search as a target. Of course, the sales promotion information transmission request can reduce the load required for processing data that has been responded to by limiting the types of home appliances such as heating appliances.

Upon receiving the search request, each of the home switchboards 105 such as the first home switchboard 105 ₁ shown in FIG. 2 extracts the corresponding one from the information registered in the constituent home appliance registration unit 125. It returns to the information management apparatus 103 as response information. Information management device 103 performs the process of collecting search results using these response information (step S243), sold to household appliances 102 household 101 ₁ to 101 _M of the first to M from the results obtained with A product to be recommended is analyzed (step S244). At this time, since the usage status of a specific home appliance 102 can be examined by time period, day of the week, or region, the analysis result can be used as data for future product development.

The information management apparatus 103 transmits the individually created sales promotion information to the home power distribution board 105 of the home 101 that should be encouraged to purchase (step S245). For example, the household distribution board 105 ₁ shown in FIG. 2 displays the received sales promotion information on the display unit 130. If the user purchases the product within the specified period for this sales promotion information, it is possible to provide a discount such as a discount on the sales price. It is possible to discount the home appliance 102 by that amount. In addition, the residents of the _{first to} Mth homes 101 _{1 to} 101 _M are interested in the sales promotion information of the home switchboard 105.

  FIG. 8 shows a problem solving information transmission process by the information management apparatus. The information management apparatus 103 shown in FIG. 4 uses the power line carrier communication method when a problem solution information transmission request is generated from the operation unit 168 in a state where necessary information is stored in the problem solution information storage unit 165 (step S261). Then, a response request relating to the product to be solved using the power distribution network 104 is broadcast (step S262).

Each home power distribution board 105 such as the first home power distribution board 105 ₁ shown in FIG. 2 provides information on products to be solved for all of the home appliances 102 registered in the constituent home appliance registration unit 125 at present or in the past. Collate. If the corresponding home appliance 102 exists, the home appliance switchboard 105 identification number and home appliance identification information registered as the product to be solved are sent back to the information management apparatus 103.

The information management apparatus 103 collects search results as responses from the _first to _M-th household switchboards 105 _{1 to} 105 _M (step S263). When there are a large number of target household switchboards 105, a response request in step S262 is made distributed for each region, or a delay time until the start of response is set so that responses are not duplicated on each household switchboard 105 side. It is necessary to devise such as setting in advance.

  When the search result collection processing is completed in this way, the information management apparatus 103 transmits countermeasure information for solving the problem to each household power distribution board 105 in which the home appliance 102 that is the target of problem solving exists. (Step S264).

Problem solving information is only transmitted is unknown or was recognized to those appropriate home 101 ₁ to 101 _M of the first to M is. Therefore, in this embodiment, the person in the corresponding home 101 requests that the operation unit 129 (FIG. 2) is operated to respond. Therefore, these response results are collected (step S265), and the report editing unit 167 edits the report based on the results. The report is transmitted via communication means 162 to the person in charge at the manufacturer or sales company by means of communication such as e-mail (step S266).

  FIG. 9 shows processing when a problem occurs in the home appliance. In the home appliance 102 shown in FIG. 3, when the main control unit 141 detects the occurrence of a failure (step S281: Y), the failure diagnosis unit 145 diagnoses the failure (step S282). As a result, when it is determined that the repair execution unit 146 can repair the failure (step S283: Y), the repair is executed (step S284).

  Thereafter, the main control unit 141 determines whether or not the problem of failure has been solved (step S285). If the problem has been solved (Y), the process is terminated (return). If the problem has not been solved, or if a new problem has occurred (step S285: N), the process returns to step S282 to execute diagnosis as re-repair. If repair is impossible in step S283 (N), an error code indicating the type of error and home appliance identification information indicating the corresponding home appliance 102 are reported to the home switchboard 105 (step S286).

  The home switchboard 105 holds this information in the home appliance transmission information holding unit 126 shown in FIG. And it waits for the information management apparatus 103 shown in FIG. 4 to poll. Of course, the problem reported by the communication control unit 162 may be transmitted to the information management apparatus 103.

  FIG. 10 shows a state of allowable power control by the home switchboard. The power management unit 128 for each distribution board shown in FIG. 2 measures the power for each breaker branch circuit as described above. As a result, if any one of the breaker branch circuits exceeds a predetermined allowable power at a certain time (step S301: Y), a list of home appliances 102 currently connected to the corresponding breaker branch circuit is formed. Obtained from 125 (step S302). And the household appliance 102 which does not need continuous electricity supply is extracted from household appliance specific information (step S303). In addition, when there is a possibility that the information of the constituent home appliance registration unit 125 is old, the connection of the corresponding home appliance 102 may be confirmed at that time.

  For example, if there is an air conditioner, a kotatsu, or a refrigerator that does not require continuous energization (step S304: Y), the electric energy of the home appliance 102 is controlled to be turned on / off, thereby reducing the peak electric energy ( Step S305). When a plurality of home appliances 102 are connected, the respective power on / off control units 144 (FIG. 3) may be instructed to change the turn-on cycle.

  In the case where only continuous energization is required in step S304 (N), on / off control is executed for the household appliance 102 having low importance or low influence (step S306). At the same time, a warning voice is output from the voice output unit 131 (FIG. 2). Residents of the corresponding household 101 hear a warning sound or notice a phenomenon such as a flashing light, stop using some home appliances 102, or change the connection to another breaker branch circuit. It can prevent falling.

  As described above, according to the electrical product information management system 100 of the present embodiment, not only communication by the power line carrier communication system is performed, but also by performing such communication, each home appliance 102 and the home switchboard 105 are used. And the power management of the home appliance 102 in the home becomes possible. In addition, even when each home appliance 102 is not directly connected to the Internet 106, the recall process and software upgrade can be performed. Furthermore, the manufacturer or sales company can quickly detect a problem that has occurred in the home appliance 102, and can be used for early solution of the problem and resolution of the trouble before a serious accident occurs.

  In the embodiment, the home appliance identification information transmission request is transmitted when the breaker is turned on in step S201 of FIG. 5, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the home appliance 102 is newly purchased, it is also effective to transmit the home appliance specifying information transmission request by operating the operation unit 129.

  <Modification of the invention>

  FIG. 11 corresponds to FIG. 6 and shows a state of processing of the information management apparatus when a recall request is made. When the necessary information is stored in the recall information storage unit 163 and the execution of the recall request is instructed from the operation unit 168 (step S321: Y), the information management apparatus 103 illustrated in FIG. A response request related to the recalled product is broadcast to the power distribution network 104 using the carrier communication method (step S322).

FIG. 12 shows the contents of the recall reception process of the home switchboard. Here it will be described the first home switchboard 105 ₁ as an example. First home switchboard 105 ₁ receives the response request of recalled products (step S341: Y), model number that represents the type of sent maker name recalled appliances 102 has been or product, serial number, etc. 2 is compared with information identifying the range including the identification information of the home appliance 102 registered in the home appliance registration unit 125 shown in FIG. S342).

As a result, if there is a match (step S343: Y), the response request is taken in and response processing as the _first household switchboard 105 ₁ is executed (step S344). However, unlike the case of the embodiment, since the information management apparatus 103 does not go through the process of collecting the results once, a detailed plan such as the collection date of the corresponding home appliance 102 is set for the first household. there is a case in which difficult shows the power distribution board 105 _per.

  Returning to FIG. 11, the description will be continued. The information management apparatus 103 collects the results of responses from the person in the household 101 who operates the operation unit 129 (FIG. 2) (step S225), and the report editing unit 167 reports the report based on the results. Edit. The report is transmitted to the person in charge of the manufacturer or sales company via the communication control unit 162 by means of communication means such as e-mail (step S226).

On the other hand, if it is determined not to match the own device information of any appliances 102 in the first home switchboard 105 ₁ side in Figure 12 (step S343: N), the response request is discarded (step S345) . It may notify that the case in household switchboard 105 ₁ side there is no recall relevant appliances 102 to the information management apparatus 103. Thus, if the first home switchboard 105 ₁ has not been temporarily used for any reason, the information management device 103 side can confirm that you did not receive the response request recalled products .

In the embodiment and the modification, the home appliance 102 in a general home such as the _{first to} Mth homes 101 _{1 to} 101 _M has been described as an example, but the present invention is also applied to a place such as a business place or a store. can do. Of course, the present invention can be similarly applied to an electrical product other than the home appliance 102 that is connected to the power line.

  Although the communication terminal, in the embodiment, the information management apparatus 103 is connected to the power distribution network 104, it is naturally possible to connect to each home via the Internet 106 and perform data communication using the power line carrier communication system only within the home.

1 is a system configuration diagram showing an overview of the configuration of an electrical product information management system in an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram showing the outline | summary of the structure of the 1st household switchboard arrange | positioned in the 1st household in a 1st Example. It is a block diagram showing the principal part of the common circuit part about an example of household appliances in a present Example. It is a block diagram showing the outline | summary of the structure of the information management apparatus of a present Example. It is the flowchart showing the flow for the registration for grasping | ascertaining the household appliances by a household switchboard, and the present condition update process in a present Example. It is a flowchart showing the mode of processing of the information management device when there is a recall request in this embodiment. It is a flowchart showing the transmission processing of the sales promotion information by an information management apparatus in a present Example. It is a flowchart showing the transmission process of the problem solution information by an information management apparatus in a present Example. It is the flowchart which showed the process at the time of the problem generation | occurrence | production by the household appliances of a present Example. It is a flowchart showing the mode of the allowable power control by a household switchboard in a present Example. It is a flowchart showing the recall request process of the information management apparatus in the modification of this invention. It is a flowchart showing the recall reception process of the household switchboard in this modification.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Electrical product information management system 101 Home 102 Home appliance 103 Information management apparatus 104 Distribution network 105 Domestic distribution board 121, 141, 161 Main control part 122, 142, 162 Communication control part 123 Power source line 124 Load side power line 125 Configuration home appliance registration unit 126 Home appliance transmission information holding unit 127 Home appliance reception information holding unit 128 Power distribution unit for each distribution board 130, 169 Display unit 131 Audio output unit 143 Self-device information storage unit 144 Power on / off control unit 145 Failure Diagnosis unit 146 Repair execution unit 163 Recall information storage unit 164 New product sales promotion information storage unit 165 Problem solution information storage unit

Claims (8)

A power supply side power line;
A load-side power line connecting electrical products;
Product identification information obtaining means for obtaining product identification information for distinguishing each of these electrical products from other electrical products by power line carrier communication using the power line from the electrical product connected to the load side power line;
Product identification information storage means for storing product identification information of each electrical product acquired by the product identification information acquisition means;
It is determined by comparing with the product identification information stored in the product identification information storage means whether or not the product related data sent from the outside is related to the electrical product connected to the load side power line. Product identification information comparison means;
And product-related data content fetching means for fetching the contents of the product-related data when it is determined that the product identification information comparison means relates to any of the electrical products connected to the load-side power line. Characteristic switchboard. 2. The switchboard according to claim 1, further comprising data content display means for displaying the contents of product related data fetched by said product related data contents fetching means. It further comprises data content providing means for providing the content of the product related data fetched by the product related data content fetching means to a corresponding one of the electrical products connected to the load side power line. The switchboard according to claim 1.   The switchboard according to claim 1, wherein the product-related data sent from the outside is sent via the power supply side power line.   The switchboard according to claim 1, wherein the product-related data sent from the outside is sent via the Internet.   The load-side power line is branched for each of a plurality of breaker branch circuits, and the product identification information of each electrical product acquired by the product identification information acquisition unit is stored together for each breaker branch circuit. The switchboard according to claim 1, wherein the electrical product is subjected to power control according to the content of the product identification information by the power line carrier communication according to the power consumption for each circuit. A power supply side power line, a load side power line connecting electrical products, and an electrical product connected to the load side power line to distinguish these electrical products from other electrical products by power line carrier communication using a power line. Product identification information acquisition means for acquiring product identification information, product identification information storage means for storing product identification information of each electrical product acquired by the product identification information acquisition means, and a predetermined product sent from the outside Product identification information comparison means for determining whether the data relates to an electrical product connected to the load-side power line by comparing with product identification information stored in the product identification information storage means; and When it is determined by the product identification information comparison means that it is related to one of the electrical products connected to the load side power line, the product related data A plurality of switchboard that includes a product-related data contents capturing means for capturing containers,
An electrical product information management system comprising: an information management device including a collective transmission unit that collectively transmits the product-related data to the plurality of switchboards. A power supply side power line, a load side power line connecting electrical products, and an electrical product connected to the load side power line to distinguish these electrical products from other electrical products by power line carrier communication using a power line. Product identification information acquisition means for acquiring product identification information, product identification information storage means for storing product identification information of each electrical product acquired by the product identification information acquisition means, and a predetermined product sent from the outside Product identification information comparison means for determining whether the data relates to an electrical product connected to the load-side power line by comparing with product identification information stored in the product identification information storage means; and When it is determined by the product identification information comparison means that it is related to one of the electrical products connected to the load side power line, the product related data A plurality of switchboard that includes a product-related data contents capturing means for capturing containers,
A response requesting means for collectively transmitting a product identification information corresponding data portion corresponding to the product identification information of the product related data to the plurality of switchboards and requesting a response when the corresponding electrical product exists; An information management device comprising: product related data content transmitting means for transmitting the content of the product related data related to the corresponding electrical product to the switchboard responding to the request of the response requesting means. Electrical product information management system characterized by

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