Home Appliance That Can Operate In A Time Range

An electrical device with a load manager that communicates with home appliances and an electric utility to reduce a cost of electricity, comprising:

• a memory that stores instructions;
• a processing unit that executes the instructions;
• a network interface that wirelessly connects to a network and communicates with the home appliances and the electric utility;
• and
• a load manager in communication with the processing unit in which the load manager:
• receives, from the home appliances, requests for power that include amounts of power to be used and future time ranges for using the amounts of power;
• consolidates the amounts of power into a consolidated amount of power;
• consolidates the future time ranges into a consolidated future time range;
• transmits the consolidated amount of power and the consolidated future time range to the electric utility;
• receives, from the electric utility, a time in the consolidated future time range when to begin to use the consolidated amount of power;
• and
• communicates with the home appliances to begin usage of the consolidated amount of power at the time received from the electric utility.

A method executed by a load manager in an electrical device to reduce a cost of electricity to a customer and to reduce peak demand to an electric utility, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a network interface of the electrical device in a home area network, requests for power for appliances of the customer in which the requests for power include amounts of power to be used by the appliances during future time ranges;
• consolidating, by the load manager in the electrical device, the amounts of power into a consolidated amount of power;
• consolidating, by the load manager in the electrical device, the future time ranges into a consolidated future time range;
• transmitting, from the network interface of the electrical device, the consolidated amount of power and the consolidated future time range to the electric utility;
• receiving, at the network interface of the electrical device and from the electric utility, a time during the consolidated future time range when to begin to use the consolidated amount of power;
• and
• communicating, from the network interface of the electrical device, the time in the home area network such that the appliances commence usage of the consolidated amount of power at the time received from the electric utility.

A computer system, comprising:

• a server of an electric utility that analyzes requests for power from customers to reduce peak demand;
• and
• electrical devices of the customers that reduce a cost of electricity purchased from the electric utility in which each of the electrical devices includes:
• a load manager with a memory that stores instructions and with a processing unit that executes the instructions to wirelessly communicate with appliances to determine requests for power that include amounts of power to be used during future time ranges, to consolidate the amounts of power into a consolidated amount of power, to consolidate the future time ranges into a consolidated future time range, to transmit the consolidated amount of power and the consolidated future time range to the server of the electric utility, to receive from the electric utility a time when to begin to use the consolidated amount of power in the consolidated future time range, and to instruct the appliances the time when to begin use of the consolidated amount of power.