Consumption meter for accumulating digital power consumption signals via telephone lines without disturbing the consumer

A consumption meter to be associated with sensors for sensing the consumption of a utility at a location comprising:

• a real time clock operable to generate timing signals at pre-determined times to divide a pre-determined time period into a plurality of intervals, said intervals defining critical and non-critical utility consumption times;
• processing means communicating with said sensors and being responsive to said timing signals for detecting and storing the utility consumption separately for each of said intervals;
• accumulation means for accumulating separately, the utility consumption stored for each of said intervals over a plurality of said time periods;
• access means for allowing a transmission link between a remote location and said consumption meter to be established over telephone lines;
• and
• interface means communicating with said accumulation means and said processing means, said interface means allowing said utility consumption stored in said accumulation means to be conveyed to said remote location upon receipt of appropriate commands therefrom, said interface means including a telephone status detector for detecting the condition of the handset of a telephone connected to said telephone lines at said location and disconnect means for disconnecting said telephone from said telephone lines and establishing said transmission link to enable transmission of said utility consumption when said telephone is not in use.