# US 11,112,289 B2 · Gas appliance monitoring system > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,112,289 B2 - Document ID: US11112289B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/615,800 - Filed: 2018-06-12 - Published: 2020-06-11 - Granted: 2021-09-07 - Earliest claimed: 2017-06-21 - Assignees: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. - Applicants: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. - Inventors: Nobuaki Murabayashi; Yoshikuni Tamura; Tadanori Shirasawa; Kazuki Shiota - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11112289B2 ## CPC - G01F 1/00: Measuring the volume flow or mass flow of fluid or fluent solid material wherein the fluid passes through a meter in a continuous flow (measuring a proportion of the volume flow G01F5/00) - G01F 15/06: Indicating or recording devices - F23K 5/00: Feeding or distributing other fuel to combustion apparatus - G01D 4/004: {Remote reading of utility meters to a fixed location} - G01F 3/00: Measuring the volume flow of fluids or fluent solid material wherein the fluid passes through the meter in successive and more or less isolated quantities, the meter being driven by the flow (measuring a proportion of the volume flow G01F5/00) - G01F 3/22: for gases - G01F 15/02: Compensating or correcting for variations in pressure, density or temperature - G01F 15/063: using electrical means - G01F 15/07: Integration to give total flow, e.g. using mechanically-operated integrating mechanism - G01F 15/0755: {involving digital counting} - G01D 2204/24: Identification of individual loads, e.g. by analysing current/voltage waveforms - G01F: MEASURING VOLUME, VOLUME FLOW, MASS FLOW OR LIQUID LEVEL; METERING BY VOLUME - F23K: FEEDING FUEL TO COMBUSTION APPARATUS (fuel feeders specially adapted for fluidised bed combustion apparatus F23C10/22) - G01D: MEASURING NOT SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR A SPECIFIC VARIABLE; ARRANGEMENTS FOR MEASURING TWO OR MORE VARIABLES NOT COVERED IN A SINGLE OTHER SUBCLASS; TARIFF METERING APPARATUS; MEASURING OR TESTING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract Gas meter and center device are provided. Gas meter includes flow rate measurer that measures a flow rate of gas in time series. Center device receives and analyzes flow rate data from gas meter, and monitors states of use of gas appliances. Gas meter detects the start of operation of gas appliances, and transmits flow rate data during predetermined periods before and after the start of operation in accordance with a request from center device. Center device monitors the states of use of gas appliances based on the received flow rate data. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A gas appliance monitoring system comprising: a gas meter including a flow rate measurer, a storage, and a meter communication unit; and a center device including a center communication unit, a data accumulation storage, and an analyzer, wherein the flow rate measurer measures a flow rate of gas in time series, the storage stores, as flow rate data, the flow rate measured by the flow rate measurer, the meter communication unit performs communication with the center device, the center communication unit performs communication with the gas meter to receive the flow rate data, the data accumulation storage accumulates the flow rate data that has been received, the analyzer analyzes the flow rate data, the gas meter detects a start of operation of a gas appliance, stores the flow rate data in the storage during (i) a first predetermined amount of time before the start of operation of the gas appliance and (ii) a second predetermined amount of time after the start of operation of the gas appliance, and transmits the flow rate data stored in the storage to the center device in response to a request from the center device, and the center device monitors a state of use of the gas appliance based on the flow rate data that has been accumulated in the data accumulation storage. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The gas appliance monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the center device includes a message distributor, and the center device analyzes the flow rate data that has been accumulated in the data accumulation storage, by using the analyzer, and generates a predetermined message based on analysis performed by the analyzer and distributes the predetermined message to a specified distribution destination, by using the message distributor. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The gas appliance monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein the analyzer determines the state of the use of the gas appliance, and the message distributor generates and distributes the predetermined message relating to the gas appliance that has been specified. ### Claim 4 A gas appliance monitoring system comprising: a gas meter including a flow rate measurer, a storage, and a meter communication unit, the flow rate measurer measuring a flow rate of gas in time series, the storage storing, as flow rate data, the flow rate measured by the flow rate measurer, the meter communication unit performing communication with a center device; and the center device including a center communication unit, a data accumulation storage, an analyzer, and a message distributor, the center communication unit performing communication with the gas meter to receive the flow rate data, the data accumulation storage accumulating the flow rate data that has been received, the analyzer analyzing the flow rate data, the message distributor generating a message and distributing the message, wherein the gas meter detects start of operation of a gas appliance, stores the flow rate data during predetermined periods before and after the start of operation, and transmits the flow rate data based on a request from the center device, and the center device monitors a state of use of the gas appliance based on the flow rate data that has been accumulated in the data accumulation storage, and distributes the message relating to the gas appliance to a terminal of a user of the gas appliance from the message distributor. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The gas appliance monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the message includes at least one of detection of a start of use of the gas appliance, detection that the gas appliance has not yet been used, detection of a failure of the gas appliance, detection of a time period or years of use of the gas appliance, detection of a predicted life of the gas appliance, and promotion of replacement of the gas appliance.