JPWO2009054023A1 - Effective power consumption limiting device - Google Patents

Abstract

[PROBLEMS] There is nothing more annoying than the power consumption limit represented by "breaker" in a society where electrical equipment is increasing, but to use less resources effectively, this type of current breaker door-to-door The power consumption limit of can not be removed. When connecting a power supply source “having restrictions such as current interruption when exceeding the contract current value” and a power load “consisting of multiple electrical devices”, multiple electrical devices can be made within the defined “restrictions” The challenge is to prevent sudden blockage while only effectively using. Power supply from an electric power company is performed from a pole transformer to a breaker installed in a house. Insert a non-contact type current sensor into the power supply main wiring inside the breaker's house, detect the operating current value, calculate the difference between the operating current value and the contract current value, that is, the surplus current value. It is solved by not allowing the connection of electrical devices that consume a large amount of current.

Description

The present invention belongs to the technical field of effective power consumption restriction for restricting the use of current exceeding the rating of a safety breaker provided in an AC power supply and preventing unexpected breaker breakage caused by over-limitation.

The sudden break of a breaker is inconvenient in many ways, and there are several known ways to deal with it.

The first method ranks between electrical devices included in the same breaker, and a separately installed communication control device connected to each electrical device transmits power limit information by rank, and each device has power according to the rank information. In this method, the supply is stopped (Patent Document 1).

In the second method, the breaker has a current detection means, outputs a power suppression command before the detected current exceeds the current allowable value, and has a means on the load side for suppressing the load power in response to the suppression signal. It is a method (patent document 2).

In the third method, in addition to the power sensor device, a plurality of sensor information such as a human detection sensor device that detects the presence or absence of a person, an illuminance sensor device that detects outdoor illuminance, and the like are exchanged over a network to dynamically This is a method of providing a home appliance with software that implements an algorithm for restricting the above or a centralized control device (Patent Document 3).

The first method requires a separately installed communication control device, determines the rank of each device in advance, grasps the rank of each device and its power consumption by operation mode, and supplies power by rank according to the situation. Stop control is required. In the second method, the breaker is required to have predictive control capability, and each load device needs to have a function of suppressing power according to the prediction. Furthermore, in the third method, software that comprehensively determines various sensors is required. As described above, since a load suppression function is newly required for another device, software, or each home electric appliance as described above, it is costly and is not widely used because it is difficult to match with a device that is already in use.
JP 2004-364463 A JP 2005-12892 A JP 2004-363661 A

Here, in order to limit the received power, prevent unexpected breaker breaks, and establish an inexpensive and practical means of realizing stable power reception, observe the actions on the appliance user side and make effective use of that point If used, it will not include a wasteful mechanism, and as a result, an inexpensive system can be constructed.

Assuming a scene where a breaker falls in a general household, it is immediately after starting to use a vacuum cleaner, immediately after turning on a dishwasher, immediately after starting a microwave oven, or the like. In both cases, the user performs a switch-on operation. Therefore, it is considered that most breaker breaks can be prevented by considering a method of limiting power consumption for an electric device that is switched on-demand by a user and consumes a relatively large amount of power. Hereinafter, a device that requires a relatively large amount of power and can be operated in real time is referred to as an on-demand device.

That is, it is important when the power user wants to turn on the on-demand device. At this time, it is necessary to determine whether the power can be turned on from the total of all current values in use at the user's home and the current consumption value of the on-demand device. It is an issue to instantly determine whether the total value falls within the contract current value or exceeds the range of the contract current value. It is.

In order to solve the above-described problems, a current sensor and some electronic circuits are placed in the vicinity of the power source safety breaker in order to inform the on-demand device of the total use current value and the contract current value that change from moment to moment.

If the current sensor is a non-contact type, it can be easily installed by people who do not qualify for construction. This electronic circuit transmits information on the current power usage state to the outside. The power usage state is a usage current value that changes every moment and a contract current value of each user, or a margin current value obtained by subtracting the use current value from the contract current value.

Information transmission to the outside of the power usage state is for notification to each on-demand device, and the means can be either wireless or wired, especially as a wired cable for a home LAN In addition to coaxial cables or optical cables, power carrier lines are also included. In reality, it is assumed that there is a high possibility that radio will be heavily used.

Next, when the on-demand device is switched on by the user, the current consumption sensed as the power usage state sensed by the current sensor is compared with the current consumption value, and even if the on-demand device is switched on, it is within the contract current. Calculate whether or not. As a result, if the total current value is within the contracted current value when the power is turned on, the power is turned on as usual and used by the user.

However, if the current consumption value and the current consumption value are summed up at that time, if the contracted current value is exceeded, the power will not be turned on against the user's intention, but an audible sound such as a buzzer or a visible signal such as a lamp. To the user. In response to this, the user cuts off the power of an unnecessary device from other electric devices in use and then uses the on-demand device again.

Information transmission from the current sensor is performed at intervals of, for example, a few hundred tens of milliseconds. If the determination of whether or not to turn on the power on the on-demand device is made in several milliseconds, the total response time of the system is 200 milliseconds. It takes less than a second and is not a problem from the human sense.

According to the present invention, the user of the on-demand device is notified of the possibility of exceeding the contract current when using the on-demand device, and in response to this, the power supply of the unnecessary and urgent electric device among other in-use electric devices is received. Since disconnection can be performed at the user's discretion, a system that is cheaper and more suitable for the purpose can be easily constructed than a fully automatic system that requires a dedicated communication control device or software.

Further, if the information on the power usage state from the current sensor is received and a box having a power connection / disconnection function is provided independently, the convenience of the present invention can be enjoyed while using an existing on-demand device as it is.

1 and 2 are conceptual diagrams of the system of the present invention.
In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, electric power is supplied to the main breaker 100 installed in the house by the power distribution cable 180 from the pole transformer 190 or the like of the power company. In order to supply electric power from the main breaker 100 to in-home equipment, in-home power supply trunk lines 170 are connected to a plurality of distribution breakers 130.
In order to grasp the power actually used, the non-contact type current sensor probe 200 is sandwiched between the main breaker side of the in-home power supply trunk wiring 170 connected to the main breaker 100, and the current sensor probe is the same as the present invention. It is connected to the base unit 300 for effective power consumption restriction, senses the use current value in the base unit 300, and combines the preset contract current value and the sensed use current value as the power use state. Transmit information wirelessly. The information is received by the slave device 400 for limiting the effective power consumption of the present invention, and the power connection / disconnection of the on-demand device 510 is controlled.

FIG. 1 shows a future type in which the slave unit 400 is referred to as Type A, which is an integrated type in which an on-demand device 510 is built, and the present invention is widely used. On the other hand, FIG. 2 shows an introductory initial form of the present invention which is an independent type in which the slave device 400 is a separate body from the on-demand device 510 and is called type B, and targets an existing on-demand device.

FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of the parent device 300 (part 1) for effective power consumption restriction according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 shows a functional block diagram of the child device 400 (part 1).

In FIG. 3, the non-contact type current sensor probe 200 sandwiched between the main breakers of the home power supply trunk wiring is connected to the current sensor circuit 310 in the parent device 300 of the present invention, and the current sensor circuit 310 The current total current value is detected. A contract current value of the main breaker is input to base unit 300 in advance by some method and stored in contract current value storage section 320.

Master device 300 obtains the difference between the contract current value stored in storage unit 320 and the current value used by current sensor circuit 310 using margin current value calculation circuit 330. The obtained margin current value is transmitted to the outside of base unit 300 using radio transmission circuit 340 as a power usage state. The coverage area generally covers the living space and can be received by on-demand equipment in that range.

Since it is conceivable that the radio will reach the living space of another person beyond the actual personal living space, it is necessary for the information transmitted by wireless to prevent the other person's on-demand device from malfunctioning. For this reason, an ID is assigned to the information to be transmitted, and an interference prevention function that takes in only the IDs that coincide with each other on the receiving side is equipped as standard.

Further, when a wired LAN or a power line LAN is used instead of wireless, the concern about interference is drastically reduced, but separate LAN construction is required.

In FIG. 4, information on the power usage state transmitted from the above-described wireless transmission circuit 340 is received by the wireless reception circuit 410. The received information is stored in the margin current value storage circuit 440a.

The slave device 400 is input with the current consumption value of the corresponding on-demand device in advance by some method, and is stored in the current consumption value storage unit 450.

The device consumption current value stored in the consumption current storage unit 450 and the margin current value stored in the margin current value storage circuit 440a are compared by the comparator 460, and the result is stored in the comparison result storage circuit 470. Is done.

When the margin current value is larger than the device consumption current value, the comparison result storage circuit is set to, for example, the “1” state, and the power switch 480 accordingly holds the switch in the “ON” state. The power cord 150 of the on-demand device and the power cord of the slave unit are directly connected, power is supplied to the on-demand device, and operation starts normally.

On the other hand, when the marginal current value is smaller than the device consumption current value, the comparison result storage circuit is set to, for example, “0”, and the power switch 480 accordingly holds the switch in the “OFF” state. Therefore, the power cord 150 of the on-demand device and the power cord of the slave unit are not connected, and no power is supplied to the on-demand device and the device does not operate.

In this way, it is determined whether or not the current consumption value falls within the marginal current value, and when it is determined that the marginal current value is consumed by the consumption current value when the on-demand device is in use. By refraining from supplying power to the on-demand equipment, it is possible to prevent the main breaker from falling.

In general, the marginal current value does not take a negative value, but it is rare when multiple on-demand devices determine that the marginal current value has sufficient margin at the same time and turn on the power. However, the marginal current value may take a negative value. When the surplus current value is negative, the power switch 480 is unconditionally held in the “OFF” state and the current input is abandoned. In particular, in the case of an unnecessarily urgent power supply device, even when the power supply device is in use, the breaker can be prevented from being cut off unexpectedly by changing the power switch 480 from the “ON” state to the “OFF” state.

FIG. 5 shows a functional block diagram of the parent device 300 (part 2) for effective power consumption restriction of the present invention, and FIG. 6 shows a functional block diagram of the child device 400 (part 2).

In FIG. 5, similarly to the case of FIG. 3, the non-contact type current sensor probe 200 sandwiched between the main breakers of the home power supply main wiring is connected to the current sensor circuit 310 in the base unit 300 of the present invention. Thus, the current sensor circuit 310 detects the current total use current value. A contract current value of the main breaker is input to base unit 300 in advance by some method and stored in contract current value storage section 320.

Base unit 300 transmits both the contract current value stored in storage unit 320 and the current value detected by current sensor circuit 310 to the outside of base unit 300 using radio transmission circuit 340 as a power usage state. To do. The coverage area generally covers the living space and can be received by on-demand equipment in that range. The interference prevention function is provided as standard as in the first embodiment.

In the slave device 400 of FIG. 6, the wireless reception circuit 410 receives the information on the power usage state transmitted from the wireless transmission circuit 340 of the second embodiment. Of the received information, the contract current value is stored in the contract current value storage circuit 420, and the use current value is stored in the use current value storage circuit 430.

Next, in the slave device 400, the difference between the current values of the contract current value storage circuit 420 and the used current value storage circuit 430 is calculated using the marginal current value calculation circuit 440.

The slave device 400 is input with the current consumption value of the corresponding on-demand device in advance by some method, and is stored in the current consumption value storage unit 450.

The device consumption current value stored in the consumption current storage unit 450 and the magnitude of the marginal current value as the calculation result of the marginal current value calculation circuit 440 are compared by the comparator 460, and the result is stored in the comparison result storage circuit 470. Is done.

Since the state of the comparison result storage circuit 470 and the operation of the power switch 480 corresponding thereto are the same as those in the above-described first embodiment, a description thereof will be omitted. Further, the operation of the power switch 480 when the margin current value becomes a negative value is also the same as that in the above-described first embodiment, and therefore will be omitted.

In the simplest embodiment 3, the use current value detected by the master device using the current sensor is displayed in a main living space such as a living room, and the user himself / herself calculates the surplus current value to connect the on-demand device.・ This is a method to control disconnection.

This can be realized by using the display device as a slave device and connecting the master device with a wireless, wired LAN, or power line LAN.

In this embodiment, it is difficult to deal with a timer-started device, and the calculation of the contract current value, the used current value, and the current consumption value of the device is left to humans. It seems to be effective.
Support and expansion of various devices

Other than on-demand equipment, there are refrigerators, rice cookers, etc. that require a relatively large amount of power. In the case of a refrigerator, it is usually operated automatically when it is used, the operation mode is automatically changed, and there is almost no manual operation. Also, rice cookers are generally automatically switched on with a timer, and there is no manual intervention. It is conceivable that the contract current value may be exceeded when such an automatic operation or timer operation device is changed in operation mode or automatically powered on while the on-demand device is being used.

However, the breaker gives a considerable delay time to prevent malfunction due to instantaneous inrush current, so this delay time can be used to instantly detect excess contract current value and stop on-demand equipment. Can do.

In other words, since the master unit always transmits the detected power usage status, the slave unit receives the information and knows that the use current value exceeds the contract current value, that is, the margin current value becomes negative. Therefore, when such a situation occurs, the breaker breakage can be prevented by stopping the power supply of the subordinate on-demand device.

Even if the power of the rice cooker is automatically turned on by the timer while using the vacuum cleaner, which is an on-demand device, the vacuum cleaner is automatically turned off and the breaker does not fall.

It is hoped that the various breaker disconnection prevention system concepts described above will be prevalent, the communication between the master unit and the slave unit will be standardized, and a consumer-friendly system that is common between manufacturers will be established. The effect of preventing breaker breakage can be expected simply by installing or externally attaching the slave unit function to the main unit and main on-demand equipment.
Further expansion, application to all electrical devices and automatic power recovery

Although the application of the present invention has been described focusing on the handling of devices with relatively large power consumption, which are named on-demand devices, all electronic devices use power and should be fully standardized. The slave device function of the present invention is added to demand devices and all electronic devices, and fine power use is possible.

At this time, if a power priority setting function is provided in each device, it is possible to sequentially disconnect from a device with lower priority when the current is exceeded, and a more comfortable power usage environment for the user can be prepared.

The priority for each device will be set according to the circumstances of each house, and all power devices in the home will be subject to control. For example, if the priority of the vacuum cleaner is set higher than the air conditioner, when using the vacuum cleaner, the power of the air conditioner is turned off. As a result, there is room for using the vacuum cleaner, and the user uses the vacuum cleaner as much as they want. be able to.

In addition, an electrical device that has been set to a low priority and has been automatically turned off automatically will automatically be restored when it can be restored (connected to the power source again) with information from the master unit. It is also possible to restore power.

Up to this point, we have considered preventing breakers from being cut off unexpectedly when using on-demand devices. However, if all electrical devices are prioritized, household electrical device users can turn on power without being aware of the breakers. Become. These major premises start from detecting the use current value of each door and transmitting the detected use current value and the contract current value or the marginal current value that is the difference between them to the living space.

System conceptual diagram (type A) System conceptual diagram (Type B) Effective base unit for power consumption restriction (Part 1) Effective handset for limiting power consumption (Part 1) Effective master unit for power consumption restriction (Part 2) Effective handset for limiting power consumption (Part 2)

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Main breaker 130 Power distribution breaker 150 Power cord 160 of an on-demand apparatus Power cord of the cordless handset device for effective power consumption restriction 170 Home power supply trunk wiring 180 Pull-in power cable 190 Pillar transformer 200 Non-contact type current sensor probe 300 Effective power source Consumption limiting parent device 310 Current sensor circuit 320 Contract current value storage unit 330 Margin current value calculation circuit (same circuit as 440)
340 Wireless transmission circuit 400 Effective power consumption restriction slave unit 410 Wireless reception circuit 420 Contract current value storage circuit 430 Use current value storage circuit 440 Margin current value calculation circuit (same circuit as 330)
440a Marginal current value storage circuit 450 Current consumption value storage unit 460 Comparison circuit 470 Comparison result storage circuit 480 Power switch 510 On-demand device 550 Existing electrical device (eg, air conditioner, television, lamp stand, etc)
560 Existing electrical equipment (example: refrigerator, rice cooker, etc)

Claims (6)

Means for storing the rated current value of the safety breaker for power supply;
Current sensor means for measuring the operating current value of the power source safety breaker;
An effective power consumption limiting parent device comprising means for notifying the stored rated current value and the used current value measured by the current sensor means to a living space by radio, signal wiring or power line. Means for storing the rated current value of the safety breaker for power supply;
Current sensor means for measuring the operating current value of the power source safety breaker;
Means for calculating a difference between the stored rated current value and a use current value measured by the current sensor, that is, a margin current value;
An effective power consumption limiting parent device having means for notifying the calculated marginal current value to the living space by radio, signal wiring or power line every moment Means for receiving the rated current value and the operating current value notified by the means of claim 1;
Means for calculating a difference between the received rated current value and a used current value, that is, a marginal current value;
Means for storing a current consumption value of a connected electrical device;
Means for continuously determining the magnitude relationship between the marginal current value and the consumption current value, and the positive / negative of the marginal current value;
An effective power consumption limiting device having means for controlling a connected electric device to be in a connected state or a disconnected state with respect to a power source by using the determination result as one factor or only factor Means for receiving a marginal current value notified by the means according to claim 2;
Means for storing a current consumption value of a connected electrical device;
Means for continuously determining a magnitude relationship between the marginal current value and the consumption current value, or positive / negative of the marginal current value;
An effective power consumption limiting device having means for controlling a connected electric device to be in a connected state or a disconnected state with respect to a power source by using the determination result as one factor or only factor A power source safety breaker comprising a function equivalent to the effective power consumption limiting parent device according to claim 1 or 2. 5. An electric device having a function equivalent to that of the effective power consumption limiter device according to claim 3 or 4.

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