Energy management unit with diagnostic capabilities
AssigneeSears Brands, L.L.C.
InventorsGunther Trieb, Elizabeth Owens, Jaime Andres Borras
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An example energy management unit (EMU) with diagnostic capabilities is provided. The EMU with diagnostic capabilities can identify a potential failure or end-of-life condition by detecting a higher power consumption, an abnormal power waveform or by receiving a signal from an appliance or piece of equipment itself generated by the appliance's or piece of equipment's self diagnostic system. The EMU can be incorporated into a system that permits various power consumption and time-current information to be transmitted to a variety of devices and parties via a communication.
Claims25
An energy management unit (EMU) device for receiving information representative of the power consumption of a device comprising:
- a line interface which is coupled to a power source to provide power to a microcontroller, a memory, an analog-to-digital converter, a communicator, and a user interface;
- and
- a load switch coupled to a load sensing circuit that controls the power applied to the device through a load interface circuit, the load sensing circuit providing a stepped-down current signal that is within the operating range of the analog-to-digital converter, for subsequent sampling by the microcontroller.
A computer-readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions, wherein the instructions perform steps for detecting a potential malfunction, end-of-life warning or diagnostic information and correcting failure modes for a device, comprising:
- hosting a database of information;
- providing a user interface comprising user interface elements for allowing a user to input identifying information for the device plugged into an energy management unit (EMU);
- receiving the identifying information from the user interface;
- receiving energy use data collected by the EMU;
- matching the identifying information with information in the database;
- analyzing the energy use data;
- and
- providing the results of the analysis of the energy use data.
A computer-readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions, wherein the instructions perform steps for detecting a potential malfunction, end-of-life warning or diagnostic information and correcting failure modes for an appliance or piece of equipment, comprising:
- hosting a database of information;
- providing a user interface comprising user interface elements for allowing a user to input identifying information for an appliance or piece of equipment plugged into an energy management unit (EMU);
- receiving the identifying information from the user interface;
- receiving appliance or equipment operating data collected by the EMU;
- transmitting the appliance or equipment operating data collected by the EMU to a remote computer center through an Internet connection.
A system for detecting a potential malfunction, end-of-life warning or diagnostic information and correcting failure modes for an appliance or piece of equipment, comprising:
- an appliance or piece of equipment;
- an energy management unit (EMU) into which the appliance or piece of equipment is plugged;
- a power source transmitting power to the EMU and the appliance or piece of equipment;
- a home hub connected to the EMU;
- and
- a remote computer center connected to the home hub through an Internet connection.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.