Patent ID: 8639465

Claim:
A method for communicating via a power consumption receiver at least one way of bidirectional coded signals pertaining to power consumption items by a load between an intelligent AC outlet and an home automation controller, said consumption receiver comprising a CPU, a memory, at least one receiver optoport and a first bus line driver, said intelligent AC outlet comprising communication and measuring circuits including an outlet optoport: the location and particulars of said AC outlet are assigned via one of installed into said memory and set via at least one of setting switches included in one of said power consumption receiver and in said intelligent AC outlet; said outlet optoport is connected with said receiver optoport via an optical cable selected from a group comprising lightguide, fiber optic cable and a combination thereof and said first bus line driver is connected via a twisted pair wires with one of a second bus line driver included in said controller directly and via a third bus line driver included in a bus line distributor, said method comprising the steps of: a. assigning said location and particulars of said AC outlet; b. connecting said optical cable between said outlet optoport and said receiver optoport; c. connecting said twisted pair between said first bus line driver and one of said second and third bus line driver; d. attaching a power plug of said load to said AC outlet; and e. propagating said coded signals selected from a group comprising the power consumed by a load, location of said intelligent AC outlet, particulars of said intelligent AC outlet, combinations thereof and at least one of bidirectional responses to at least one of power consumption and particulars inquiry.