Patent ID: 11946960
Assignee: ELECTROLUX APPLIANCES AKTIEBOLAG
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H  Y | IPC G  H

Claim 22:
23. A method for determining operating information of a household appliance by a smart plug which electrically connects a household appliance to power lines, said smart plug including an electric measuring circuit and an electronic controller, and configured to communicate information indicative of operating cycle performed by the household appliance to a network system, the method comprising:
measuring, by the electric measuring circuit, current and voltage of the electric power supplied to said household appliance via said smart plug,
determining, by the electronic controller, electric quantities indicative at least of current harmonics and/or voltage harmonics, based on said measured current and voltage,
recognizing, by the electronic controller, the electric loads of said household appliance and a sequence of activation of said electric loads during an operating cycle performed by said household appliance, based on said determined electric quantities;
determining by the electronic controller, the operating cycle performed by the household appliance based on recognized electric loads and the sequence of activation of said electric loads during said operating cycle;
communicating by the electronic controller, said determined operating cycle to said network system,
storing, by the electronic controller, in a storage of said smart plug, electric signatures of said electric loads which contain information indicative of one or more of said electric quantities associated to the activation of electric loads of said household appliance,
when the household appliance is performing an operating cycle, determining by the electronic controller, electric signatures of said electric loads based on one or more electric quantities, and
recognizing by the electronic controller, said electric loads and the sequence of activation of said electric loads based on said stored load electric signatures and said electric signatures determined when the operating cycle was performed.