In-line device and a method for controlling an electrical appliance
AssigneesGreen Running Limited, Austin Consultants Limited
InventorsPeter Davies, Konstantine Dimitrov, Christopher Anthony Thoroughgood
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A control and monitoring device integrated in an intermediary coupling unit, said intermediary coupling unit being configured to couple an electrical appliance to a power supply, said control and monitoring device comprising a control module configured to change a status of the electrical appliance; a sensor configured to monitor a condition of said electrical appliance and/or an environment thereof; and a processor configured to instruct the control module to change a status of the electrical appliance based on an output of the sensor. Complementary devices and methods of operating such devices are also presented herein.
Claims16
A control and monitoring device integrated in a switch disconnector, said switch disconnector being configured to couple an electrical appliance to a power supply, said control and monitoring device comprising:
- a control module configured to change a status of the electrical appliance, wherein the control module comprises a switch configured to connect the power supply to the electrical appliance in a first configuration and disconnect the power supply from the electrical appliance in a second configuration;
- a sensor configured to monitor a condition of said electrical appliance and/or an environment thereof, wherein the sensor comprises a voltage sensor configured to measure a voltage supplied through the switch disconnector to the electrical appliance, and a current sensor configured to measure a current supplied through the switch disconnector to the electrical appliance;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- obtain data from the voltage sensor and the current sensor;
- monitor the performance of the electrical appliance by repeatedly generating a set of one or more features using the obtained data and comparing each generated feature set to comparison data to identify a fault in the electrical appliance, wherein the feature set comprises one or more of:
- information relating to a switch-on frequency of one or more components of the electrical appliance, information relating to a duration of switch on time of one or more components of the electrical appliance, information relating to an event during an operation cycle, an amount of power consumed at regular intervals during a time period identified using an event, a duration of an event, frequency data, and a time of occurrence of an event within an operation cycle;
- and
- instruct the control module to change a status of the electrical appliance from the first configuration to the second configuration in response to identifying a fault in the electrical appliance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.