Patent ID: 8868248

Claim:
A smart control device for monitoring and scheduling operations of an electrical appliance, the smart control device comprising: an interface unit configured to receive energy information; a sensor unit configured to detect at least one of status information of the electrical appliance and environment information of the electrical appliance; a smart controller provided in the electrical appliance and configured to control an operation mode of the electrical appliance based upon at least one of the energy information, the status information and the environment information; and an input unit configured to input a user's control command respective to the electrical appliance, wherein the smart controller determines an absolute value for at least one of a variation of the status information or a variation of the environment information from a previously detected status information or environment information from the operation mode and controls the operation mode of the electrical appliance corresponding to at least one of the variation of the status information or variation of the environment information, wherein, when the received energy information is on peak time period and the operation mode is a first energy saving operation mode, the smart controller is configured to: control the electrical appliance so that the operation mode can be maintained as the first energy saving operation mode, when the absolute value of the variation of the status information or the environment information is below a first variation reference value, control the electrical appliance so that the operation mode can be changed from the first energy saving operation mode into a second energy saving operation mode in order to restrain the variation of the status information or the environment information within a range of the energy saving operation mode, when the absolute value of the variation of the status information or the environment information is between the first variation reference value and a second variation reference value, and control the electrical appliance so that the operation mode can be changed from the second energy saving operation mode into a general operation mode in order to restrain a variation of the status information or the environment information, when the absolute value of the variation of the status information or the environment information is above the second variation reference value, and wherein an amount of energy for operating the second energy saving operation mode is greater than an amount of energy for operating the first energy saving operation mode, and the amount of energy for operating the second energy saving operation mode is smaller than an amount of energy for operating the general operation mode.