Consumer consumption monitoring system

Abstract

A consumer consumption monitoring system includes a plurality of measurement devices disposed in corresponding supply paths of coupled consumer devices located within a building. A network node circuit coupled to the plurality of measurement devices retrieves measurement data from the plurality of measurement devices, and stores and analyzes the measurement data over time to develop one or more consumer device consumption profiles.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A home networking node comprising:
 a control circuit coupled to one or more consumption measurement devices coupled to one or more respective home devices, the control circuit operable to:
 retrieve measurement data from the one or more consumption measurement devices; 
 store and analyze a series of the measurement data; and 
 communicate one or more of the stored and analyzed series of measurement data to at least one remote device via a network interface. 
   
     
     
         2 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more consumption measurement devices measures power consumption. 
     
     
         3 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more consumption measurement devices measures water consumption. 
     
     
         4 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more consumption measurement devices measures gas consumption. 
     
     
         5 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the one or more consumption measurement devices collectively measure power, water and gas consumption. 
     
     
         6 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of consumption measurement devices comprises one of fuses or circuit breakers with current detection. 
     
     
         7 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the one or more respective home devices comprise an interconnected network of nodes. 
     
     
         8 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein the analyzed series of measurement data includes consumer device consumption profiles. 
     
     
         9 . The home networking node of  claim 1 , wherein the retrieved measurement data is retrieved with powerline communications. 
     
     
         10 . A consumer consumption monitoring system comprising:
 a plurality of measurement devices disposed in corresponding supply paths of coupled consumer devices located within a building;   a network node circuit coupled to the plurality of measurement devices, the network node circuit operable to:
 retrieve measurement data from the plurality of measurement devices; 
 store and analyze the measurement data over time to develop one or more consumer device consumption profiles. 
   
     
     
         11 . The consumer consumption monitoring system of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more consumer device consumption profiles include at least one of power, water or gas consumption. 
     
     
         12 . The consumer consumption monitoring system of  claim 10 , wherein the coupled consumer devices comprises an interconnected network of nodes. 
     
     
         13 . A method comprising:
 detecting one or more supply flows for each of a plurality of consumer devices disposed in corresponding supply paths within a building;   measuring at least one of the one or more supply flows for at least one of the plurality of consumer devices disposed in the corresponding supply paths with measurement devices coupled to the corresponding supply paths;   converting the measurements to a digital format;   collecting and storing consumption data in at least a first network node memory based on the converted measurements; and   communicating the stored consumption data to at least one remote device via a communications network interface.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the measuring of at least one of the one or more supply flows measures electrical power consumption. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the measuring of at least one of the one or more supply flows measures water consumption. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the measuring of at least one of the one or more supply flows measures gas consumption. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising measuring a plurality of the one or more supply flows to collectively measure power, water and gas consumption. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the stored consumption data is processed to create consumer device consumption profiles. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the collecting includes powerline communications. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the plurality of consumer devices comprises an interconnected network of nodes.