Patent ID: 8183712
Filing Date: 2012-05-22
Classification: G06Q,H02J,Y02B,Y04S

Abstract:
1. A method of managing power consumption by electrical appliances, comprising: obtaining power consumption information for a use cycle of each of multiple appliances; automatically scheduling a time slot for a future planned operation cycle of a selected appliance as a function of power consumption by appliance cycles scheduled in that time slot, such that an upper limit of power consumption is not exceeded by collective predicted power consumption for scheduled appliance cycles in the time slot; providing a user interface for receiving from a user an appliance selection and preferred operation time slot for the selected appliance; and automatically rescheduling an appliance cycle to another scheduled time slot as a function of power consumption by future planned appliance cycles scheduled in the user preferred time slot based on determining a difference between planned consumption and an upper power consumption limit such that the upper power consumption limit is determined to not exceed the collective predicted power consumption for scheduled appliance cycles in the user preferred time slot, wherein a risk of exceeding the upper power consumption limit is reduced.