Dynamically adaptive personalized smart energy profiles
A facility employing systems, methods, and/or techniques for dynamically and adaptively configuring configurable energy consuming and producing devices (e.g., smart energy devices) based on user profiles and user presence information is disclosed. In some embodiments, the facility periodically detects the presence of users, and retrieves preference information for those users. For each of one or more configurable energy devices in the area, the facility generates a combined setting based on the preferences of each user present and adjusts the devices based on the combined settings. For example, if User A, User B, and User C are present in a room and User A's preferred temperature setting is 75° F., User B's preferred temperature setting is 68° F., and User C's preferred temperature setting is 70° F., the facility may generate a combined setting for a thermostat by taking the average value of the users in the room.
1. A method for automatically configuring configurable devices within a building based on the presence of users within the building, the method comprising:
collecting presence information for each of a plurality of users of the building; and
for each of a plurality of regions within the building,
in response to determining that there are no users present in the region within the building, loading an empty profile for the region,
in response to determining that there are more than a predetermined threshold number of users present in the region within the building, loading a group profile for the region, and
in response to determining that there is at least one user, and no more than the predetermined threshold number of users, present in the region within the building,
for each of a plurality of configurable devices of the region within the building,
for each user present in the region within the building,
retrieving a weighting factor associated with the user, and
retrieving a setting preference for the configurable device of the region within the building, and
scaling the retrieved weighting factor,
generating a weighted sum based on the scaled weighting factors and the retrieved setting preferences, and
controlling the configurable device in accordance with the generated weighted sum so that the configurable device is controlled based on a setting preference of the at least one user.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of configurable devices of the region within the building is a thermostat and wherein each of the setting preferences for the thermostat is a temperature setting.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighted sum is generated according to the formula
∑
i
=
1
n
(
preference
i
·
weight
i
)
∑
i
=
1
n
weight
i
wherein n represents the number of users present in a first region within the building, preference i represents a setting preference for the i th user, and weight i represents a scaled weighting factor for the i th user.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein collecting presence information for each of a plurality of users of the building comprises collecting presence information transmitted from a mobile phone.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the collected presence information is based on a stored schedule for at least one user.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each user present in a first region within the building,
determining an amount of time that the user has been present in the first region,
wherein scaling the retrieved weighting factors is based at least in part on the amount of time that an associated user has been present in the first region.
7. A system comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one memory;
a first component configured to collect presence information for each of a plurality of users of a building; and
a second component configured to, for each of a plurality of devices within a region within the building,
for each user present within the region within the building,
retrieve a weighting factor associated with the user,
retrieve a setting preference for the device, and
scale the retrieved weighting factor,
generate a weighted sum based on the scaled weighting factors and the retrieved setting preferences, and
control the device in accordance with generated weighted sum so that the device is controlled based on a setting preference of each user present within the region within the building,
wherein each of the components comprises computer-executable instructions stored in the memory for execution by the processor.
8. The system of claim 7 wherein the presence information includes information collected from a mobile telephone associated with a first user.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the information collected from the mobile telephone associated with the first user includes GPS information.
10. The system of claim 7 wherein the presence information includes information collected from sensors within the building.
11. The system of claim 7 wherein the weighted sum is generated according to the formula
∑
i
=
1
n
(
preference
i
·
weight
i
)
∑
i
=
1
n
weight
i
wherein n represents the number of users present in a first region within the building, preference i represents a setting preference for the i th user, and weight i represents a scaled weighting factor for the i th user.
12. The system of claim 7 wherein the weighted sum is generated according to the formula
∑
i
=
1
n
weight
i
(
∏
i
=
1
n
preference
i
weight
i
)
wherein n represents the number of users present in a first region within the building, preference i represents a setting preference for the i th user in the first region within the building, and weight i represents a scaled weighting factor for the i th user in the first region within the building.
13. The system of claim 7 wherein at least one of the plurality of devices within the building is a light and wherein a setting preference for the light is a brightness setting.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the lamp is configured to accept a predetermined number of discrete values, the system further comprising:
a third component configured to calculate, in response to determining that a weighted sum for the lamp is not equal to one of the discrete values, a discrete value for the lamp.
15. The system of claim 7 wherein at least one of the plurality of devices is a fan and a retrieved setting preference for the fan is a fan speed.
16. The system of claim 7 wherein at least one of the plurality of devices is an audio-playing device, wherein a retrieved setting preference for the audio-playing device is a music genre, and wherein the combined setting for the audio-playing device is based at least in part on an intersection of the retrieved setting preferences for the audio-playing device.
17. The system of claim 7 wherein the weighted sum is generated according to the formula
∑
i
=
1
n
weight
i
∑
i
=
1
n
weight
i
preference
i
wherein n represents the number of users present in region associated with the first device, preference i represents a setting preference for the first device for the i th user, and weight i represents a weighting factor for the i th user.
18. The system of claim 7 , wherein the second component is further configured to, for each user present within the region within the building,
determine how long the user has been present within the region within the building,
wherein the second component is configured to scale weighting factor retrieved for the user based on how long the user has been present within the region within the building.
19. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a component configured to determine a number of users present within the region within the building; and
a component configured to determine that the number of users present within the region within the building exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein the predetermined threshold is greater than zero.
20. A computer-readable hardware device storing instructions that, if executed by a computing system having a memory and a processor, cause the computing system to perform a method comprising:
collecting presence information for each of a plurality of users of a building; and
for each of a plurality of devices within a region within the building,
for each user present within the region within the building,
retrieving a weighting factor associated with the user,
retrieving a setting preference for the device, and
scaling the retrieved weighting factor,
generating a weighted sum based on the scaled weighting factors and the retrieved setting preferences, and
controlling the device in accordance with the generated weighted sum so that the device is controlling based on a setting preference of each user present within the region within the building.
21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
further in response to determining that there is at least one user, and no more than the predetermined threshold number of users, present in the region within the building,
for each of the plurality of configurable devices of the region within the building,
configuring the configurable device in accordance with the weighted sum generated for the configurable device.
22. The computer-readable hardware device of claim 20 , the method further comprising:
configuring a first device, from among the plurality of devices within the region within the building, based at least in part on the weighted sum generated for the first device.
23. The method of claim 2 , wherein controlling the thermostat comprises setting the thermostat to a value based on the weighted sum generated for the thermostat.