Researchers Submit Patent Application, "Energy Management System, Display Device, Display Method, and Program", for Approval (USPTO 20160172906)
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Energy Weekly News -- From Washington, D.C., VerticalNews journalists report that a patent application by the inventors MARUYAMA, Ichiro (Tokyo, JP); MINEZAWA, Satoshi (Tokyo, JP); YABE, Masaaki (Tokyo, JP); YOSHIKAWA, Toshiaki (Tokyo, JP); YANO, Hirotoshi (Tokyo, JP); IIZAWA, Daisuke (Tokyo, JP); TANAKA, Kenichiro (Tokyo, JP); OGINO, Takashi (Tokyo, JP); KOMATSU, Masayuki (Tokyo, JP); OGAWA, Yuki (Tokyo, JP), filed on July 30, 2014, was made available online on June 23, 2016.
No assignee for this patent application has been made.
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "In recent years there is an urgent need for a response to problems such as global warming and depletion of energy resources, and an emphasis has been placed on approaches with the object of reduction in amounts of CO.sub.2 emissions or reduction in amounts of consumed energy. In this context, for single-family homes as well as multi-resident buildings such as apartment buildings, equipment is progressing for distributed energy generating systems as typified by solar power generation systems.
"Although most of the electrical power generated by this type of distributed energy generating system is used by the building on which the electricity generating system is installed, part of the electrical power is sold to an electric power company. Thus a system is proposed, as for example, in Patent Literature 1, in which a comparison between power generated by the power generation system and power supplied from a commercial electrical power system is displayed in order to motivate a housing resident to conserve energy.
"According to the system disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a graph bar indicating electrical energy generated by a solar power generation system and a graph bar indicating electrical energy consumed at a residence are displayed adjacent to one another. Thus the housing resident can easily compare the generated electrical energy and the consumed electrical energy."
As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, VerticalNews correspondents also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "Technical Problem
"When promoting energy conservation with respect to electrical power, efficient promotion of energy conservation is thought to be possible by comparison of electrical power consumption of each electric device installed in a residence. However, the comparison of electrical energy consumed by each unit of electrical equipment is not possible for the system disclosed in Patent Literature 1.
"Moreover, rather than just controlling electrical power consumption amount, control of consumption amounts of resources such as water and gas is important in order to realize a reduction in energy consumption used by the residence as a whole. However, the system disclosed in Patent Literature 1 only displays information related to electrical power generation and electrical power consumption. Thus the promotion of energy conservation for non-electrical-power energy is difficult.
"In consideration of the aforementioned circumstances, the object of the present disclosure is to effectively reduce consumption of energy by devices installed in a residence.
"Solution to Problem
"In order to achieve the aforementioned object, the energy management system of the present disclosure includes:
"a first power meter configured to measure electrical power supplied to a residence from a commercial electrical power system;
"a second power meter configured to measure electrical power generated by a distributed electrical power source;
"a third power meter configured to measure electrical power supplied to each electric device of a plurality of electric devices installed in the residence;
"a memory configured to store measurement results of the first power meter and the second power meter, and the measurement result of the third power meter together with position information of the electric device;
"a processor configured to display on a display device, in a display configuration designated by a user, an image showing the measurement results stored by the memory; and
"a selector configured to select an object, the image comprising the object, wherein
"for each selection of the object by the user using the selector, the image displayed on the display device changes to a new image according to the selected object.
"Advantageous Effects of Invention
"According to the present disclosure, results of measurement of electrical power supplied to each of a plurality of electric devices installed in a residence are stored together with positional information of the electric devices. Thus a user can see a consumed amount of electrical power either device-by-device for the electric devices or location-by-location for the installation locations. Thus the user becomes highly aware of energy conservation, and energy consumed by electric devices installed in a residence can be effectively decreased.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
"FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an energy management system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
"FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing of a residence in which the energy management system is installed;
"FIG. 3 is a system diagram of a commercial electrical power system and electric devices arranged in the residence;
"FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically indicating information stored in an auxiliary memory;
"FIG. 5 is a diagram indicating an start-up image;
"FIG. 6 is a diagram for explanation of touch operation;
"FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an image showing an electrical energy consumption device-by-device for electrical devices;
"FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a pop-up window;
"FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an image including a graph showing change of electrical energy device-by-device for the electrical devices;
"FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an image for highlighted display of a touched region;
"FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a diagram including a circular graph showing separate electrical energy consumption ;
"FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a screen indicating a present electrical power usage state;
"FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a screen indicating the present electrical power usage state;
"FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a screen indicating the present electrical power usage state;
"FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an image expressing an energy conservation target;
"FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a pop-up window;
"FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an image expressing transitioning of consumed amounts of gas and tap water;
"FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an image showing electricity sales results;
"FIG. 19 is a diagram for explanation of transitioning of images;
"FIG. 20 is a diagram showing configuration of a CT; and
"FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a modified embodiment of the energy management system."
For additional information on this patent application, see: MARUYAMA, Ichiro; MINEZAWA, Satoshi; YABE, Masaaki; YOSHIKAWA, Toshiaki; YANO, Hirotoshi; IIZAWA, Daisuke; TANAKA, Kenichiro; OGINO, Takashi; KOMATSU, Masayuki; OGAWA, Yuki. Energy Management System, Display Device, Display Method, and Program. Filed July 30, 2014 and posted June 23, 2016. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1545&p=31&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20160616.PD.&OS=PD/20160616&RS=PD/20160616
Keywords for this news article include: Patents, Oil & Gas, Solar Power, Energy Conservation.
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