KR20170014095A - A Method and System of Smart Consumer Service for Home Power Saving - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a smart grid system and a smart grid method, in which at least one smart plug, connected to at least one household electronic appliance, at least one user terminal, and a server are connected over a network. The smart plug comprises: a power amount measurement sensor unit which measures the amount of power used by the household electronic appliance; a power disconnection unit which turns on and off power of the household electronic appliance; a wireless communication unit which enables the smart plug to transmit and receive data to and from an external device via wireless communication; memory which stores a data management application program and a control management application program; and a control unit which controls the power amount measurement sensor unit, the power disconnection unit, the wireless communication unit, and the memory by operating the control management application program and the data management application program. The amount of power used by the household electronic appliance connected to the smart plug is measured. Data regarding the measurement is transmitted to the server over the network, either the measured amount of power is checked by using the user terminal via the server, or the power of the household electronic appliance is controlled to be turned on or off through reception of an instruction from the user terminal via the server.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a Smart Consumer Service System for reducing electric energy in a home,

The present invention relates to a smart grid system and a method thereof, and more particularly, to a smart grid system and method thereof, and more particularly, to a smart grid system and method thereof, To provide a service system and method for enabling a consumer to make smarter decisions in the selection of electric habits or household appliances.

Through the Kyoto Protocol, global efforts are being made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the interest and development of this smart grid technology and the problem of electricity supply and demand in the summer, technology development and product development for efficient use and reduction of electric energy are actively proceeding. However, until now, the technology has stopped at the boundary of a home, such as shutting down the standby power in the house, showing the total amount of power consumption in the house, confirming the power consumption of the individual household appliances and turning the power on and off . For smart power consumption, however, it is possible to save smarter electric energy if accurate information on how much electricity you are consuming, as well as the power consumption of other households can be compared.

For this reason, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and a service method that act as a smart consumer for smart consumer consumption.

Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0087257 (published on August 07, 2012) Patent Publication No. 10-2013-0048358 (published on May 10, 2013)

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for enabling a consumer to compare the power consumption (home appliance and total consumption) It is intended to support smart consumption habits and purchasing of consumer electronics devices.

In order to achieve this object,

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system in which at least one smart plug and at least one user terminal and a server are connected by a network, the smart plug being connected to at least one home appliance in the house, A wireless communication unit that allows the smart plug to transmit and receive data to and from an external device via wireless communication; a data management application program and a control management application And a controller for controlling the power measuring sensor unit, the power cutoff unit, the wireless communication unit, and the memory by operating the control management application program and the data management application program, Measuring the power consumption, and transmitting the measured data to the net And a controller for controlling the power of the home appliances by controlling the power of the home appliances by transmitting the measured power consumption through the server through the user terminal or receiving a command of the user terminal from the server, .

Preferably, the server further comprises: a communication manager module for receiving a message from the smart plug and the user terminal; and a processor for analyzing a message received through the communication manager module, A database for storing information of the smart plug and information of the user terminal, information of the smart plug is stored in the database through the service manager module, And a database manager module for reading the smart plug information stored in the database according to the information request of the terminal.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an energy saving service method in a system in which one or more smart plugs connected to one or more home appliances and one or more user terminals and a server are connected via a network, the service method comprising the steps of: (a) Inputting a user name and executing the service program; (b) registering the smart plug in the server through the user terminal and registering the home appliance connected to the smart plug when the user login is successful in the step (a); (c) requesting an inquiry from the server to confirm the power consumption of the home appliances registered in the step (b) through the user terminal; (d) turning on / off the power of the home appliances according to the amount of power used in the step (c) through the user terminal.

Preferably, the step (b) further comprises the steps of: inputting a MAC address of the smart plug through the user terminal; inputting a type of the home appliance to be connected to the smart plug, Wherein the user terminal having received the MAC address of the smart plug, the type of the home appliance, and the home appliance detailed information constitutes a transmission message according to a protocol agreed with the server, and transmits the transmission message to the server, And requesting registration of the smart plug and the home appliance.

Preferably, the MAC address is input using an NFC tag or a QR code of the smart plug.

Preferably, in the step (c), a list of previously registered home appliances is automatically inquired through the user terminal, and the home appliances to be checked among the inquired home appliances are selected. Selecting whether to compare the power usage of the selected home appliances with the comparison power usage or to display only the power usage of the selected home appliances alone without comparison and if the comparison inquiry is selected in the selection step, Selecting a comparison inquiry condition, configuring an inquiry command message promised to the server through the user terminal according to the selected inquiry condition, and requesting inquiry to the server.

Preferably, in the step (d), the list of home appliances registered in the step (b) is automatically inquired of the user terminal, and an appliance to be powered on or off among the home appliances selected is selected , Selecting whether to turn on or off the power supply, select whether the power on / off control of the selected home appliances is to be performed immediately or immediately, or whether a separate power on / off schedule control is to be generated Controlling the power on / off schedule according to a set time period if the on / off control is not to be immediately performed in the step; and determining whether the power on / Wherein the scheduling information is input from the user terminal and constitutes a promised control command message with the server, Whether to transfer may further comprise the step of performing a power control command.

Preferably, the selection of the home appliances to be turned on / off is performed by comparing the power usage of the household appliances searched in the step (c) with the comparison power usage, and turning off the power when the comparison power usage value is exceeded .

The present invention can provide power consumption data capable of comparative analysis so that consumers can accurately establish a power saving plan by themselves after correctly recognizing their own power consumption patterns.

Thus, if the power consumption of the electronic device used by the user can be compared with the electronic device used by the other person, it will become a standard for future electronic device purchase selection, which will lead to the development of the power saving technology of the electronic device manufacturer. In addition, power usage comparison data between similar assumptions will provide consumers with the motivation to save power and contribute to national power demand management.

1 is a block diagram of a smart consumer service system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the smart plug 300 shown in FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the smart consumer server 100 shown in FIG. 1,
4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of registering a smart plug and a home appliance in a user terminal 500 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart showing a step of requesting smart consumption server 100 for power consumption analysis data from the user terminal 500. FIG.
6 is a flowchart showing a process of controlling the power supply of the home appliance 200 at the user terminal 500. FIG.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of receiving a message of the user terminal 500 in the process of FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 and stepping the smart consumer server 100 in accordance with a message type.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the system includes a smart plug 300 connected to the same network 600 through a wireless router 400, The smart plug 300 measures the electricity usage amount of the connected home appliance 200 and transmits it to the external smart consumer server 100 through the wireless router 400, The user terminal 500 of the smart plug 300 is configured to inquire the measured power consumption through the smart consumer server 100 or to turn on / off the power of the home appliance 200 connected to the smart plug 300.

Here, the smart plug 300 measures electric power consumption of the household appliance 200 connected to the plug by attaching an electricity consumption measuring module, an electric power switch, and a wireless communication module to a general electric plug, And provides a function of transmitting power to the remote server 100 through the Internet or receiving a command of the user terminal 500 from the server 100 and turning on / off the power of the home appliances 200.

2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the smart plug 300 in the system of FIG.

Referring to FIG. 2, the smart plug 300 includes a power measuring sensor unit 320 for measuring the power consumption of the connected home appliance 200; A power cutoff unit 330 for turning on / off the power of the connected household appliances 200; A wireless communication unit 310 for allowing the smart plug 300 to transmit / receive data to / from an external device via wireless communication; A memory (not shown) for storing a data management application program 350 and a control management application program; and a control unit 330 for operating the control management application program 360 and the data management application program 350, A power cutoff unit 330, a wireless communication unit 310, and an MCU 340 for controlling the memory.

Here, the data management application program 350 may be configured to dataize the power consumption measured by the power consumption measurement sensor unit 320 and transmit a predetermined protocol (hereinafter referred to as " protocol ") to the smart consumer server 100 through the wireless communication unit 310. [ As shown in FIG. The control management application program 360 interprets the power ON / OFF control command of the user terminal 500 transmitted through the smart consumer server 100 and issues a corresponding control command to the power cutoff unit 330 Function.

3 is a functional block diagram illustrating the configuration of the smart consumer server 100 in the system of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 3, the smart consumer server 100 includes a smart plug 300 and a user terminal 500 A communication manager module (110) for receiving a message; A service manager module 120 for analyzing a message received through the communication manager module 110, processing a reception message from the smart plug 300 and processing a reception message from the user terminal 500; The information of the smart plug 300 is stored in the database 140 through the service manager module 120 or the information of the smart plug 300 stored in the database 140 according to the information request of the user terminal 500 A database manager module 130; And a database 140 for storing information of the smart plug 300 and information of the user terminal 500.

At this time, the information of the smart plug 300 includes the MAC address (serial number) of the smart plug 300, the ID, the information of the home appliance 200 connected to the smart plug 300, And information on the amount of power used can be included.

First, the communication manager module 110 is a module for the smart consumer server 100 to perform interworking with the smart plug 300 or the user terminal 500, and is connected by UDP, TCP, and HTTP protocols based on IP communication .

The service manager module 120 analyzes and processes the request data received by the communication manager module 110 and processes the request data of the smart plug 300 and the user terminal 500 separately. For example, the received data from the smart plug 300 correspond to the home appliance 200 information, the power usage information, and the connection setting information of the smart plug 300, which are managed as a database through the database manager module 130 . At this time, the connection setting information of the smart plug 300 may correspond to the network environment information of the smart plug 300. The request data from the user terminal 500 requests the information of the smart plug 300 based on the login information and the inquiry condition information of the user terminal 500, To the user terminal (500).

The database manager module 130 stores connection setting information of the smart plug 300 configured based on a MAC address and an id, information of the home appliance 200 connected to the smart plug 300, and measured power usage information Stored in the database 140, inquired and changed.

The database 140 is responsible for storing the smart plug 300 information and the login information of the user terminal 500.

FIGS. 4 to 7 illustrate a smart smart consumer service process according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which will be described in detail below.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of registering a smart plug 300 newly installed in a home in the smart consumer server 100 using the user terminal 500 in the system of FIG. 1, ) Is registered in a step-by-step manner.

Referring to FIG. 4, first, a user is logged in using a user name and password to use the smart consumer service according to the present invention through the user terminal 500 (S501). If the user login (S501) is successful, the user inputs the MAC address of the purchased SmartPlug 300 (S502). At this time, the MAC address may correspond to the identification number of the smart plug 300 such as the serial number of the smart plug 300, and the input of the MAC address may be directly inputted by the user through the smart plug 300 Alternatively, the serial number of the smart plug 300 may be input using the recorded NFC tag or QR code.

Next, in step S503, the type of the home appliance to be connected to the SmartPlug 300 inputting the MAC address is input in step S502. At this time, the type of the home appliance 200 to be input can be inputted, for example, a type of the home appliance 200 such as a TV, an air conditioner, a refrigerator, a fan, and the like. Also, in order to provide an accurate comparative analysis for providing a smart consumer service, in order to maintain consistency in the text of the type of the home appliance 200 input for each user, the service provider inputs the type of home appliances in advance, The type of the household appliance may be input in a form of selecting from among various types of home appliances such as a TV, an air conditioner, a refrigerator, a washing machine, and a fan.

Then, the user can input the manufacturer, model name, and location information (hereinafter, referred to as " home appliance detail information ") of the product to the type of home appliances input through step S503. At this time, And the type of the positional information, and may be input in a form selected by the user (S504).

The user terminal 500 receiving the detailed information of the home appliance such as the MAC address of the smart plug and the type of the home appliance inputted according to the above procedure and the manufacturer and the model name of the home appliance is connected to the Smart Consumer server 100 (S505), and transmits the transmission message configured in the step S505 to the smart con- verter server 100 connected via the Internet to request registration of the smart plug and home appliance (S506).

5, in the system of FIG. 1, the smart consumer server 100 inquires of the user terminal 500 in order to confirm the power consumption of the household appliance 200 registered in the course of FIG. 4 through the user terminal 500 FIG.

4, the user of the user terminal 500 performs a user login using the user ID and password at the user terminal 500 to check the power consumption of the home appliances 200 registered by the user, The application program is executed (S510). If the user login is successful, the user automatically inquires the list of home appliances previously registered through the user terminal 500, and selects the home appliances to be checked among the inquired home appliances (S521). At this time, it is possible to select all of the registered home electric appliances or one or more specific home appliances.

Next, a method of expressing the amount of electricity used is compared with the amount of power used by a user selected by the user through the user terminal 500 (hereinafter, referred to as "comparison power consumption" (S512) whether or not to inquire only the electric power usage amount of the home electric appliance alone selected without the comparison.

If a comparison query is selected, a comparison query condition is selected (S513). At this time, in the comparison inquiry condition, the comparison power consumption is determined by comparing the usage amount of all the users using the smart consumer service, comparing the average value of the users in the apartment complex of the user, Whether it is used, minimum power consumption, power consumption versus set amount, etc.). It is also possible to select whether to compare the same household appliance with the same model for the household appliances selected according to the comparison inquiry selection in step S512. Accordingly, the comparison power consumption may be an average value of all users, an average value of users in a complex, a maximum power consumption in all users or a complex, a minimum power consumption in all users or a complex, a power consumption per set amount, And can be variously set according to the reference setting. Further, the average value, the maximum or minimum power consumption, and the power consumption per set amount can be set for the same type of home appliance or the same model. Also, the comparison power consumption may be stored in the database 140 of the smart consumer server 100.

The user constructs an inquiry command message promised to the smart consumer server 100 through the user terminal 500 according to the inquiry condition selected according to the procedure of S513 in operation S514 and transmits the inquiry command message to the smart consumer server 100 (S515).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for turning on / off the home appliance 200 according to the amount of power consumed through the process of FIG. 5 through the user terminal 500 in the system of FIG.

Referring to FIG. 6, a user inputs an ID and a password through a user terminal 500 to log-in a user and executes a smart consumer service program in order to control power of the home appliance 200 in the home (S520).

If the user login is successful, a list of the home appliances registered in accordance with the home appliances registration procedure of FIG. 4 is automatically inquired through the user terminal 500 (S521), and power on of the home appliances (S522) and selects whether to turn the power on or off (S523). At this time, the selection of the home appliances to be turned on / off (S522) can be selected according to the result of the power consumption of the home appliances inquired in the process of FIG. 5. For example, It is possible to select to turn off the power supply if the comparison power usage value is exceeded.

Next, it is determined whether to perform power-on / power-off control of the selected home appliance at once or immediately to generate a separate power on / off schedule control (S524).

If it is determined in step S524 that the on / off control is not to be performed immediately, the user may turn off the power supply after one hour, or turn on the power only for a predetermined period of time for a week, (Hereinafter, referred to as 'power on / off schedule control') when it is desired to control the power source of the home appliance in accordance with a predetermined schedule of the power-off period (S525 ).

In step S522 to step S525, the user terminal 500 receives the home appliance information to be turned on / off, on / off state, and control schedule information (immediate one-time control or power on / off schedule control) (S526), and transmits the control command message to the smart consumer server 100 connected through the wired / wireless network to execute the power control command (S527).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of registering a smart plug 300 and a home appliance 200 in a smart consumer service procedure of the user terminal 500 through the processes of FIGS. A power consumption inquiry request, and a home appliance power supply control request.

Referring to FIG. 7, first, the smart consumer server 100 receives a message from the user terminal 500 through the wired / wireless network and classifies the received message type (S701) (S702). In this case, the types of messages may be classified into three types: the smart plug and home appliance registration request message of FIG. 4, the home appliance power usage information inquiry request message of FIG. 5, and the home appliance power control request message of FIG. Can be distinguished.

Here, if the message type received from the user terminal 500 is a smart plug and a home appliance registration message, it is determined whether the MAC address (serial number) of the smart plug 300 requested to register is an already registered serial number, (S750). If the serial number does not exist in the database 140, the new smart plug is registered in the database 140 (S751). If the existing serial number exists, the smart plug registration procedure is omitted. At this time, the information of the smart plug 300 newly registered in the database 140 may correspond to connection information such as a MAC address (serial number), a unique ID, an IP address and a port number.

Then, in order to register and register the home appliance in the registered smart plug 300, a unique ID of the home appliance that is requested to be registered is automatically generated (S752). In step S753, the detailed information of the home appliances inputted from the user terminal 500 is stored in the database using the generated unique ID as a key value. At this time, the detailed information of the home appliance 200 to be stored may be the type of the home appliance, the maker and the model name, and may additionally store the location information (living room, living room, kitchen, etc.).

Finally, by mapping the unique ID of the home appliance and the smart plug MAC address (serial number) generated and stored according to the above procedure (S754), information indicating the specific home appliance connected to the specific smart plug is mapped to the database 140 The Smart Plug and Home Appliance registration procedure is completed, and corresponds to the process of FIG.

When the message type received from the user terminal 500 is a power consumption inquiry message, the smart consumer server 100 transmits the power consumption inquiry message to the database 140 using the unique ID of the inquiry target appliance transmitted from the user terminal 500 (S760). ≪ / RTI > At this time, information to be inquired may be the type of household appliances, the manufacturer and the model name (S761).

Then, a query condition is extracted from the message of the user terminal 500 (S762), and a database search condition is generated by combining the information searched in the S761 procedure and the query condition extracted in the S762 procedure, (S763), and searches the power usage data according to the search condition.

The retrieved power usage data is transmitted to the requested user terminal 500 (S764), and corresponds to the process of FIG.

When the message type received from the user terminal 500 is the power control message, the smart consumer server 100 transmits the power control message to the database 140 using the unique ID of the control target appliance transmitted from the user terminal 500, In step S770, the smart plug connected to the home appliance is searched.

The control schedule information received from the user terminal 500 is mapped to the searched smart plug and stored (S771).

The smart consumer server 100 periodically monitors the control schedule information stored in the database (S772). When the time recorded in the control schedule information reaches the time recorded in the control schedule information, the smart consumer server 100 automatically Command (S773). If the control schedule information is no longer valid, the control schedule information is automatically deleted. If the control schedule information is still valid, the next control command execution time is updated and the process is repeated periodically (S774).

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. In addition, it is a matter of course that various modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the technical idea of the present invention by anyone having ordinary skill in the art.

100: Smart Consumer Server
200: Home appliance
300: Smart plug
400: wireless router
500: user terminal

Claims (8)

In a system in which at least one smart plug and one or more user terminals and a server are connected by a network connected to one or more home appliances in the home,
The smart plug includes a power measuring sensor unit for measuring a power consumption of the home appliance, a power cutoff unit for turning on / off the power of the home appliance, and a smart plug for transmitting / receiving data to / A memory for storing a data management application program and a control management application program, and a control unit for operating the control management application program and the data management application program to control the power amount measurement sensor unit, the power cutoff unit, the wireless communication unit, And a control unit for controlling the control unit,
The method includes measuring a power consumption of an appliance connected to the SmartPlug, transmitting the measured data to the server via the network, inquiring the measured power consumption through the server through the user terminal, From the server, and turns on / off the power of the home appliance. The method according to claim 1,
The server comprises:
A communication manager module for receiving a message from the smart plug and the user terminal,
A service manager module for analyzing a message received through the communication manager module and for processing a reception message from the smart plug and processing a reception message from the user terminal;
A database for storing information of the smart plug and information of the user terminal;
And a database manager module for storing information of the smart plug through the service manager module or for reading smart plug information stored in the database according to an information request of the user terminal. Service system. 1. A method for reducing electrical energy in a system in which at least one smart plug and at least one user terminal and a server are connected by a network connected to one or more home appliances in the home,
(a) inputting an ID and a password through the user terminal and performing a user login and executing the service program;
(b) registering the smart plug in the server through the user terminal and registering the home appliance connected to the smart plug when the user login is successful in the step (a);
(c) requesting an inquiry from the server to confirm the power consumption of the home appliances registered in the step (b) through the user terminal;
(d) turning on / off the power of the home appliances according to the amount of power used in the step (c) through the user terminal. The method of claim 3,
In the step (b)
Inputting a MAC address of the smart plug through the user terminal;
Inputting the type of the home appliance to be connected to the smart plug to which the MAC address is input and the appliance detail information;
Wherein the user terminal having received the MAC address of the smart plug, the type of the home appliance, and the home appliance detailed information constitutes a transmission message according to a protocol agreed with the server and transmits the transmission message to the server, Further comprising the step of requesting device registration. 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the MAC address is input using an NFC tag or a QR code of the SmartPlug. The method of claim 3,
In the step (c)
A list of previously registered home appliances is automatically searched through the user terminal and the selected home appliances are searched;
Selecting whether to compare the power usage of the home appliances selected by the user with the comparison power usage amount through the user terminal or to inquire only the power usage of the home appliances alone selected without comparison,
Selecting a comparison inquiry condition when the comparison inquiry is selected in the selection step,
Configuring an inquiry command message promised to the server through the user terminal according to the selected inquiry condition, and requesting inquiry to the server. The method of claim 3,
In the step (d)
The list of the home appliances registered in the step (b) is automatically inquired, and the home appliances which are to be turned on or off are selected from the inquired home appliances, and whether to turn the power on or off Selecting,
Selecting whether to perform power on / off control of the selected home appliance immediately or immediately, or to generate a separate power on / off schedule control;
Performing power on / off schedule control according to a set time period if the on / off control is not immediately performed in the step,
Wherein the controller transmits a control command message to the server after receiving the home appliance information, on / off state, and control schedule information for the power on / off control from the user terminal, And performing a power control command based on the power control command. 8. The method of claim 7,
The selection of the home appliances to be turned on / off may be made by comparing the power usage of the household appliances searched in the step (c) with the comparison power usage and selecting the power off when the comparison power usage value is exceeded A smart consumer service method characterized by.

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