PEAKPOWER ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM METHOD AND APPARATUS
An integrated Energy Management and/or Control System method and apparatus that continually monitors power consumption on each piece of equipment 2417 and performs detailed analyses of energy consumption curves including derivatives and compares data to historical data on the same equipment as well as going online and acquiring manufacturers specs and comparing to that as well as the same model number equipment in the same or other locations, in order to detect anomalies, abnormal energy consumption or provide early warning of equipment failures.
This divisional application is related to, and claims priority to provisional utility application entitled “PEAK POWER SYSTEM,” filed on Aug. 11, 2008, having an application number of 61/087,963; and further is related to, and claims priority to provisional utility application entitled “SIDECAR FOR PEAK POWER SYSTEM,” filed on Jan. 6, 2009, having an application number of 61/142,838; and further is related to, and claims priority to the non-provisional utility application entitled “PEAKPOWER ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM METHOD AND APPARATUS,” filed on Aug. 10, 2009, having an application number of Ser. No. 12/538,767 (Attorney Docket No. 9159P004), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
COPYRIGHT NOTICEA portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCS).
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional Energy Management and Control Systems are not totally integrated into the fabric of the control panels and wiring at the circuit level. Many times, clamp-on CT's are brought into a facility and the circuits are monitored for a few days to characterize typical energy usage, then all the equipment and instrumentation is removed before the “Fire Marshal” arrives. The conventional methods have such a “rats nest” of wiring and instrumentation hanging out of the panels that it would never pass the “Fire Marshal” inspection.
Conventional Energy Management and Control Systems do not do first and second derivatives and utilize historical graphs and graphs of similar equipment to anticipate equipment abnormalities and potential failures.
Conventional Energy Management and Control Systems are largely localized at a specific location. There is no means for comparing the energy consumption patterns of a piece of equipment at one location to the same or similar type of equipment at another location.
Conventional Energy Management and Control Systems relays require continuous energy to hold them in certain positions. A Normally Open (NO) relay requires continuous energy to keep it closed. A Normally Closed (NC) relay requires continuous energy to keep it open.
There is a need for a relay that doesn't waste energy that will hold in any position without consuming outside energy. The instant invention accomplishes all these goals, and thus, the present state of the art may therefore benefit from the PeakPower energy management and control systems, methods, and apparatuses as described herein.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is an object of the present invention to provide a highly integrated, innocuous (almost invisible) energy management and control system hardware and software, which operates continuously 24/7/365 and may be monitored and controlled over the Internet from virtually anywhere in the world. It silently monitors and alerts humans only when there's a problem that it can't handle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide virtually continuous, monitoring and analysis of energy consuming equipment and detecting early warning signs of increasing energy use or potential failure.
Another object of the present invention is to be able to actively remotely control energy usage and thermostats via the internet, (e.g. in case someone leaves an air conditioner on after hours).
The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings.
The following sets forth a detailed description of a mode for carrying out the invention. The description is intended to be illustrative of the invention and should not be taken to be limiting.
The PeakPower Management and Control System is organized as a hierarchical system (see
The Power Management and Control Software at element 240 performs statistical analysis on all signals including first and second derivatives and compares it to data acquired on previous dates and times as well as comparing it to manufacturers specs as well as data from the same model of equipment in other locations to detect early warning signs of potential failures or anomalies in the power used by this equipment versus other same or similar equipment in order to optimize energy use.
The Power Management and Control User Interface shown replicated on the Computer, Cell Phone and PDA in element 250 uses a priority pop-up scheme to pop-up the most critical alert or alarm item out of the group currently being monitored to bring instant attention to it (Border colored Red is a Critical ALARM) (Border colored Yellow is a warning ALERT) (Border colored Green means it's within limits) and give the operator timely data to make critical decisions instantly. There is a set of Red, Yellow, Green indicators (like idiot lights) across the top (or bottom) of the screen where the overall status of all entities being monitors is viewable at a glance. The Red once always pop to the upper left corner and sound the buzzer.
If multiple ALARMS occur they propagate to the right upper corner then the lower left corner then finally the lower right corner if four alarms occur before they can be corrected and return to green status. After the screen is full, the idiot lights at the top are used to manage further red and yellow ALARMS and ALERTS. As the ALARMS or ALERTS are corrected, they return to GREEN.
Embodiments of the present disclosure describe a PeakPower System, which includes the Peak Power Commander Sensor Module. The Peak Power System provides local and/or remote control of various aspects of device operation (e.g., power, security, etc.) for commercial, industrial and/or residential applications. In some embodiments, the Peak Power System may monitor temperature and reset a thermostat, turn on/off an air conditioning or refrigeration unit, etc.
The Peak Power System is described in detail in U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/087,963, titled “Peak Power System” filed on Aug. 11, 2008, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
A Sidecar embodiment of the “Peak Power System” is described in detail in U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/142,838, titled “Sidecar for Peak Power System” filed on Jan. 6, 2009, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The “Sidecar” has since been renamed, “PeakPwr Commander”, hereinafter referred to as “PeakPower CMDR”.
The present disclosure implements the Peak Power System's energy sensor through a PeakPower CMDR device that may be coupled, e.g., installed, beside a conventional circuit breaker such as, but not limited to, an Eaton (Cutler-Hammer) ED and FD type of circuit breaker, see, e.g.,
The PeakPower CMDR may have three phases and the board mounts in the case so that the wires go straight through the three current sensors and out the other side. There is no physical electrical connection or physical connection required. The sensing and communications are all done via current Transformers (CT's). Even the power to drive the PeakPower CMDR is extracted through these CT's. For instance,
The PeakPower CMDR may communicate through the wires it's monitoring or it may communicate through the Sub-GigaHertz wireless module that plugs onto the tear of the main board. Refer to
The pressure sensor is a Pegasus MPL115A MEMS type sensor (very tiny).
Referring to
One key element of the PeakPower CMDR is the communications methodology. The PeakPower CMDR utilizes the Current Transformer(s) (CTs) for communications, obviating the need for physically connecting to the wire(s).
A key novelty of this technique is that the current and voltage on the Wire(s) is 90 degrees out of phase. See
The liquid and gas flow meters in the preferred embodiment (
The instant invention solves the problems of prior art relays too. The Multi-Stable Relay consumes much less (near zero) energy. The only energy required is a minimal amount of energy (a pulse) to change the relay from one state to another.
The Power Management and Control relays in
This “Control” portion of this PEAKPOWER ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM is referred to as a Multi-Stable Magnetic Relay Multi-stable relay method and apparatus for switching electrical power with zero holding current. For instance,
This method and apparatus for switching power, requires no activation or hold current once it's switched to any state. Any detent state is held by permanent magnet force and requires zero current to hold the relay in any detent state position. For instance,
The Relay Preferred Embodiment #1 is as disclosed in the Provisional application A/N 61/087,963 filed 11 Aug. 2008 which is included in its entirety by reference.
Preferred embodiment #2: This preferred embodiment is a simple form, a Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) version in
The enclosure case at element 1100 is plastic and could be polycarbonate, ABS, acrylic, etc. There are five connector pins at element 1110 in this embodiment which make electrical contact to the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) usually via a connector socket that is soldered down onto the PCB when it's manufactured.
The Voltage/Current Input/Output Pin-1 at element 1210 is where one input current/voltage or one output current/voltage either enters or exits. This pin is also referred to as NOC-1 which means “Normally Open or Closed”. This is to distinguish it from prior art which is either NO or NC. This pin is also bi-directional.
The Voltage/Current Input/Output Pin-2 at element 1230 is where a second input current/voltage or one output current/voltage either enters or exits. This pin is also referred to as NOC-2. This pin is also bi-directional.
The Control Pins, Control Pulse-1 at element 1220 and Control Pulse-2 at element 1240 are where the activation switching signal is applied.
When element 1240 is held at Ground potential and a 20 msec 12 Volt pulse is applied to element 1220 the Relay goes to STATE 1 where MAIN at element 1200 is connected to element 1210. And it stays in that state consuming no detention until an opposite polarity pulse is received.
For example, when element 1220 is held at Ground potential and a 20 msec 12 Volt pulse is applied to element 240 the Relay goes to STATE 2 where MAIN at element 1200 is connected to element 1230.
And it stays in that state consuming no detention power until an opposite polarity pulse is received.
In
The momentary magnetic field generated in the two coils pushes the magnet(s) to the left. Actually the Left Coil at element 1370 on the left attracts the north pole of the magnet(s) and element 1370 on the right repels the South pole so that the magnet “sticks” to the left ferromagnetic screw, causing the osculating contact at element 1310 to make solid contact with element 1300, the Voltage/Current Input/Output Pin-1 Static Contact and current flows with no further activation or detent current required. Elements 1310 Voltage/Current input/output NOC-1 Osculating contact, 1320 Reciprocating Magnet(s) Left and Right, 1330 screw or rivet made of slightly ferrous material detent to attract and hold reciprocating magnet(s) left and right, 1340 planar support bar, left and right, 1350 left to right support stiffener, 1360 Torsion beam electrical conductor main voltage/current input/output, 1380 voltage/current input/output-2 NOC-2 static contact, and 1390 voltage/current input/output-2 NOC-2 osculating contact are further depicted.
In order to flip the Relay to Position 2 on the right simply reverse the process by momentarily holding pin at element 1240 to Ground and applying a 12 VDC pulse for 20 msec to the pin at element 1220.
An alternative method for flipping the relay is to tie one of the Control pins to ground either one of elements 1220 or 1240 and pulse the other pin with +12 VDC then −12 VDC alternately to flip it back and forth.
This Multi-Stable Relay at
In
While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be recognized to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, further changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention and its broader aspects, and thus, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of this invention.
Claims
1. A method for using various devices and links to manufacturer's specs and datasheets or actual specs and datasheets for the various devices, to build a device profile database based on the manufacturer's specifications of how much power a refrigeration device should take, along with the heuristic data acquired from each type or model number of each device.
2. Automated software for updating a device(s) profile signature over time based on real data and the real signature that is detected from devices through the Peak Power System.
3. A system for automatically updating a devices profile signature over days, months, and years based on real data, and the real signature that is detected and assimilated from many similar devices through the Peak Power System; and when a device is beginning to deviate from these adaptive signature parametrics, the Peak Power System triggers an alert or alarm, regardless of what the operator has set the alert/alarm limits to.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 11, 2013
Publication Date: Nov 28, 2013
Inventor: Edward L. Davis (Tigard, OR)
Application Number: 13/793,430
International Classification: G06F 17/30 (20060101);