Fuel oil and propane monitoring, delivery and sale system and method
AssigneeEnerTrac, Inc.
InventorsSteven C. Owens, Richard H. Gibbs, Peter B. Hunt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A residential fuel measurement system for optimizing the fuel delivery including a sensor and transmission system with methods of use. The sensor includes a photo sensitive sensor for measuring the position of the existing fuel tank indicator. A transmission system transmits the position to central receiving station. Receiving station receives information, and other related information from third party sources and calculates a plurality of reports including fuel delivery routing, calibration, alarms and billing information.
Claims20
A method for calibrating a tank sensor having an existing fuel level indicator, the method comprising the steps of:
- optically sensing the position of the existing fuel level indicator before a delivery of fuel;
- measuring the position of the existing fuel level indicator after the delivery of fuel;
- and
- performing a calibration at least partially based on the measurements and an amount of fuel delivered.
A method, comprising:
- receiving a first indication of a position of a fuel level indicator of a tank at a first time, the first indication being a frequency of a timer;
- adding an amount of fuel to the tank;
- receiving a second indication of the position of the fuel level indicator at a second time, after the amount of fuel is added to the tank;
- calibrating the fuel level indicator based on the first indication, the second indication, and the amount;
- receiving a third indication of the position of the fuel level indicator at a third time, after a portion of the fuel is removed from the tank;
- and
- determining a fuel level of the tank based on the third indication.
A method, comprising:
- sensing a first position of a fuel level indicator of a tank at a first time;
- producing a first frequency based on the first position;
- adding an amount of fuel to the tank;
- sensing a second position of the fuel level indicator at a second time, after the amount of fuel is added to the tank;
- and
- calibrating the fuel level indicator based on the first position, the second position, and the amount.
A method for calibrating a fuel oil monitoring system, including:
- sensing a first frequency indicative of a first data representative of a volume of fuel in a fuel tank, and transmitting the first data to a database;
- adding an amount of fuel to the fuel tank, and transmitting second data representative of the amount of fuel to the database;
- sensing third data representative of the volume of fuel in the fuel tank after adding the amount, and transmitting the third data to a database;
- calculating a relationship based on the first data, the second data, and the third data;
- sensing fourth data representative of a volume of fuel in the fuel tank after calculating the relationship, and transmitting the fourth data to the database;
- and
- determining the volume of fuel in the fuel tank after calculating based on the relationship and the fourth data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.