US 5,502,339 A · Subscriber electric power load control system

Abstract

Electric power uses or loads in a premises are controlled or managed depending upon whether the use is for heating, hot water, heat pump, air conditioning, lights, appliances, pumps, etc., according to programs that are controlled by the electric Power Company, for the purposes of spreading power uses at the premises over a day or other time interval, to avoid peak load periods encountered by the Power Company, while still providing the normal comfort levels required by the subscriber from the various power uses. Power levels of several uses at the subscriber's premises are sensed and the power for each use is controlled according to a program that includes a schedule of power level and/or the time of day that is inserted in the program or controlled in the program by the Power Company to accomplish the spreading. In a particular embodiment, a programmed computer unit is provided at the premises that is monitored by the Power Company via the subscribers telephone line. Changes in the computer program are inserted in the unit by the Power Company, via the telephone line; and signals within and throughout the premises for detecting and controlling power uses are transmitted to and from the unit over the premises power line.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A system for controlling electric power usage by a plurality of loads at an electric power company subscriber's premises, comprising:

circuitry operable to store data representative of a plurality of distinct real time intervals during which the electric power usage is to be controlled;
said storing circuitry further operable to store data representative of distinct load limits for each real time interval, for each load;
circuitry coupled to each load and operable to detect the power usage of the load;
circuitry coupled to each load, the storing circuitry, and the detecting circuitry and operable to generate control signals;
and
circuitry coupled to each individual load and responsive to said generating circuitry and operable to individually limit power usage of each load such that the power usage of each load does not exceed the limit stored in the storing circuitry during an associated predetermined real time interval.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Subscriber electric power load control system

Life of this patent

Subscriber electric power load control system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16