Patent ID: 8818566

Claim:
An energy management system, comprising: a household controller; a user interface operably connected to the household controller; and a plurality of household appliances operatively connected to the household controller; wherein the household controller manages power consumption of each of the plurality of household appliances within a household, the household controller being configured to receive a targeted energy cost selected by a user via the user interface for the plurality of household appliances and to receive and process an energy signal indicative of one or more energy parameters of an associated energy supplying utility, including at least a peak demand period or an off-peak demand period and current energy cost, the household controller configured to control the plurality of household appliances in one of a plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, and wherein the household controller controls each of the plurality of household appliances to operate in the normal operating mode during the off-peak demand period, and to operate in the energy savings mode when the current energy cost exceeds the targeted energy cost, wherein the household controller is configured to create a randomization timeframe based on at least a portion of a serial number of each appliance, and wherein the household controller controls the return of the plurality of household appliances to the normal operating mode when the current energy cost falls below the targeted energy cost based on the randomization timeframe to prevent an energy surge for the associated energy supplying utility, the randomization timeframe being a fixed value of a predetermined number of minutes based on at least one character of the serial number.