Context-aware smart home energy manager

1. A method for scheduling household energy use, wherein the household includes at least two appliances including a dishwasher, the method comprising:

querying a user about a user's preferences for each of the at least two appliances via a user interface including providing one or more interview questions each with two or more selectable predefined answers, wherein the one or more interview questions include a question asking whether to delay a heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until an off-peak time;

accepting via the user interface a selected predefined answer to each of the one or more interview questions, which reveals an indication of the user's preferences for each of the at least two appliances;

determining an appliance use schedule for each of the at least two appliances based, at least in part, on the selected predefined answers to the one or more interview questions; and

delaying the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher based on an answer to the question asking whether to delay the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until the off-peak time.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying via the user interface a recommendation for the user to accept the determined appliance use schedule for at least one of the appliances before putting the recommended appliance use schedule into service.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying a recommended change to the user's preferences for at least one of the at least two appliances to achieve greater energy savings.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the at least two appliances comprises a 24/7 appliance and another one of the at least two appliances is an on-demand appliance.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving contextual information about the household at a home energy manager that is operatively coupled to the at least two appliances,

where the contextual information includes at least one of the following:

current weather information;

forecast weather information;

security system information;

utility information;

renewable energy-use information;

energy storage information;

energy supply type; and

utility signals including at least one of the following types of signals: demand response (DR), real-time-pricing (RTP) information, time-of-use (TOU) tariff.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving contextual information about the household at a home energy manager that is operatively coupled to the at least two appliances; and

determining a local energy schedule for using renewable energy sources and/or storage batteries within the household, wherein the local energy schedule is based, at least in part, on the contextual information received at the home energy manager related to demand response of a utility.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

monitoring ongoing appliance use to infer compliance with the appliance use schedules; and

dynamically modifying the appliance use schedules according to monitored contextual information and the user's evolving energy use behavior.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising one or more of:

displaying via the user interface energy saving opportunities in compliance with the user's evolving energy use behavior;

recommending use of a renewable energy source and/or a stored energy source within the household; and

displaying incentive or motivational information to the user based the user's evolving energy use behavior.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving contextual information about the household at a home energy manager that is operatively coupled to the at least two appliances; and

correlating the contextual information received at the home energy manager with energy consumption levels to dynamically change the appliance use schedule for at least one of the appliances based, at least in part, on an energy-saving condition and the accepted user preferences.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising coordinating a home energy manager to perform at least one of the following operations:

gathering contextual information related to environmental conditions;

gathering energy supply related conditions; and

gathering energy cost conditions.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

monitoring household's occupant activity levels and use of the at least two appliances; and

determining the appliance use schedule for at least one of the appliances based, at least in part, the household's occupant activity levels and the use of one or more of the appliances.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising operating each of the two or more appliances according to the corresponding appliance use schedule.

13. A system for dynamically scheduling household energy use, wherein the household includes at least two appliances including a dishwasher, the system comprising:

a user interface;

a memory; and

one or more processors coupled to the user interface and the memory, the one or more processors configured to:

present a user with an interview screen about a user's preferences for each of the at least two appliances via the user interface by presenting a question asking whether to delay a heat-dry operation of dishwasher until an off-peak time;

present the user with one or more selectable responses corresponding to the interview screens;

accept a selected response as an indication of the user's preferences for each of the at least two appliances via the user interface;

determine an appliance use schedule for each of the at least two appliances based, at least in part, on the accepted user preferences;

monitor ongoing appliance use to infer compliance with the appliance use schedules; and

dynamically modify the appliance use schedules according to the user's evolving energy use behavior by delaying the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher based on an answer to the question asking whether to delay the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until the off-peak time.

14. The system of claim 13 ,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive contextual information about the household, and

where the contextual information includes at least one of the following:

current weather information;

forecast weather information;

security system information;

utility information;

renewable energy-use information;

energy storage information;

energy supply type; and

utility signals including at least one of the following types of signals: demand response (DR), real-time-pricing (RTP) information, time-of-use (TOU) tariff.

15. An apparatus comprising one or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code stored thereon in a non-transient state for execution by a processor, the processor readable code causing the processor to execute a method of dynamically scheduling household energy use for a household comprising:

querying a user about a user's preferences for each of at least two appliances of the household by providing one or more interview questions and one or more selectable predefined answers, wherein the at least two appliances include a dishwasher, and wherein the one or more interview questions include a question asking whether to delay a heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until an off-peak time;

accepting an indication of the user's preferences for each of the at least two appliances;

determining an appliance use schedule for each of the at least two appliances based, at least in part, on the accepted user preferences;

monitoring ongoing appliance use to infer compliance with the appliance use schedules; and

dynamically modifying the appliance use schedules according the user's evolving energy use behavior by delaying the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher based on an answer to the question asking whether to delay the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until the off-peak time.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 ,

wherein the processor readable code is configured to be executable by the processor for further causing the processor to receive contextual information about the household, and

where the contextual information includes at least one of the following:

current weather information;

forecast weather information;

security system information;

utility information;

renewable energy-use information;

energy storage information;

energy supply type; and

utility signals including at least one of the following types of signals: demand response (DR), real-time-pricing (RTP) information, time-of-use (TOU) tariff.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more interview questions include a question asking whether to run the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher.

18. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein delaying the heat-dry operation comprises delaying, in a first instance, the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher based on an answer to the question asking whether to delay the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until the off-peak time,

further comprising refraining from delaying, in a second instance, the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher based on the answer to the question asking whether to delay the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until the off-peak time.

19. The system of claim 13 ,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to delay the heat-dry operation by delaying, in a first instance, the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher based on an answer to the question asking whether to delay the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until the off-peak time,

wherein the one or more processors are also configured to refrain from delaying, in a second instance, the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher based on the answer to the question asking whether to delay the heat-dry operation of the dishwasher until the off-peak time.

20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving contextual information about the household at a home energy manager that is operatively coupled to the at least two appliances including a dishwasher; and

identifying a comfort of service model, wherein the comfort of service model references the received contextual information as well as the indication of the user's preferences for each of the at least two appliances,

wherein determining the appliance use schedule for each of the at least two appliances is further based on the comfort of service model and the received contextual information.