Science Quiz™ - Mart :: Nauka ~ Tehnika ~ Military

radio vezom

Switching between the tariffs may happen via a radio-activated switch rather than a time switch to prevent the possibility of the user tampering with a sealed time switch to obtain cheaper electricity.

Evo kako to rade u Engleskoj

Radio-activated switching is common in the UK, with a nightly data signal sent within the longwave carrier of BBC Radio 4, 198 kHz. The times of Economy 7 in the UK are between 12.30am - 7.30am,

mada sustina je u tome da se da signal prcesoru ili pobudi neki tranzistor u odedjenom unapred programiranom vremenskom periodu

ili

The other approach that has been explored is to program the operating schedule of appliances at times which coincide with availability of the "off-peak" tariff but this expensive and inconvenient solution is becoming more difficult to implement in practice because of tariff changes which electricity distributors are attempting to link more directly to the supply and demand for power.

The purpose of the invention is to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a method of managing electric power on the basis of tariff schedules in a network within a dwelling where the network includes appliances capable of 2-way communication with each other and means of determining the electric power tariff schedule which is in force in that dwelling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, when a tariff change signal occurs at the level of the means of determining the electric power tariff schedule in force in the dwelling, this information is picked up by a so-called manager unit which is connected to the network and this manager generates a message that contains a code which represents the tariff in force and a binary information element indicating whether or not the tariff can be regarded as economical, the said message being broadcast with a method of addressing which limits its logical range to those appliances in the dwelling which are associated with the said means of determining the electric power tariff schedule in force in the dwelling.

Using the method according to the invention, the network user can utilize the installed appliances connected to the network in a more rational and economical way because the manager transmits only to those appliances of which the operation is compatible with the tariff information method, thus allowing these appliances to change to the economical operating mode which is appropriate to them. In addition, the method according to the invention can advantageously be associated with a method of managing electric power which uses load disconnection/reconnection operations.