Method to determine utility consumption of individual appliances in a household from periodic measurements of aggregate utility consumption

A method for determining utility consumption of each appliance from a collection of appliances by measuring only aggregate utility consumption of the collection of appliances, the method comprising of:

• (a) determining utility consumption of various modes of each appliance,
• (b) determining a periodic measurement interval, and measuring aggregate utility consumption at the said periodic measurement interval,
• (c) determining if the change in aggregate utility consumption in an interval is due to change in status (ON or OFF) of one of the collection of appliances,
• (d)-determining if the change in aggregate consumption is due to a change in status of a pair of appliances,
• (e)-determining if change in aggregate consumption is due to change in status of a triplet of appliances, and
• (f) breaking ties, if necessary among candidate singletons, candidate pairs and candidate triplets, and
• (g) determining total utility consumption of a specific appliance from the collection of appliances from the utility consumption of the specific appliance in each measurement interval.

A system that determines utility consumption of each appliance in a collection of appliances by measuring only the aggregate utility consumption of the collection of appliances, comprising:

• a measuring unit to measure aggregate utility consumption at periodic measurement intervals,
• 1-appliance solver for first determining if the change in aggregate utility consumption in an interval is due to change in status (ON or OFF) of one of the collection of appliances,
• 2-appliance solver for determining if the change in aggregate utility consumption is due to a change in status of a pair of appliances,
• 3-appliance solver for determining if change in aggregate utility consumption is due to change in status of a triplet of appliances, and
• an analytics unit for calculating total utility consumption of a specific appliance from the utility consumption of the specific appliance in each measurement interval.

A computer program product including a non-transitory computer readable medium with instructions, said instructions enabling a computer to determine utility consumption of each appliance in a collection of appliances by using measurements of aggregate utility consumption, said instructions comprising:

• instructions for a measuring unit to receive utility consumption at periodic intervals,
• instructions for a 1-appliance solver for first determining if the change in aggregate utility consumption in an interval is due to change in status (ON or OFF) of one of the appliances,
• instructions for a 2-appliance solver for determining if the change in aggregate consumption is due to a change in status of a pair of appliances,
• instructions for a 3-appliance solver for determining if change in aggregate consumption is due to change in status of a triplet of appliances, and
• instructions for an analytics unit for calculating total utility consumption of an appliance from the utility consumption of the said appliance in each measurement interval.