385results about How to "Reduce energy use" patented technology

A “Smart Grid Pricer” enables automated balancing of the supply and demand of energy supply and consumption, such as the generation and consumption of electricity between electricity providers and electricity consumers. The Smart Grid Pricer automatically computes and delivers real-time energy pricing information to consumers on behalf of energy retailers (e.g., electricity utilities) to help drive the balance of demand with supply. In various embodiments, real-time pricing is determined by using various probabilistic models to estimate overall consumer demand as a function of factors such as energy price, time of day, region, weather, etc. to compute a price that will result in an energy demand that is closely balanced to the available supply. On the consumer side, various components of the Smart Grid Pricer automatically respond to such pricing information to optimize energy consumption in accordance with a variety of automated and/or user defined rules and preferences.

There is disclosed an automatic electronic window shading (tinting) system for houses and transport vehicles such as automobiles, RV's, trains, boats and the like, to provide shading for people to protect them from exposure to harmful direct sunlight, by providing the windows of said houses and transport vehicles with display elements and light (photocell/photovoltaic) sensors. The system comprises liquid crystal, electrochromic, suspended particle device (SPD), or NanoChromics display (NCD) element attached to a part of a transparent body (such as the windows) and a liquid crystal, electrochromic, suspended particle device (SPD), or NanoChromics display (NCD) controlling semiconductor element controlling the operation of the display element.

An electric power management system includes a monitor for the total power usage of a facility that monitors a history of power consumption during a set time interval of a distribution system having at least one electric load. Predictions of available power are generated through out the time interval by comparing the history of power consumption to a set allocation. Available power predictions are transmitted to the at least one electric load. The at least one load control receives the power capability predictions and controls the energy usage of the at least one electric load such that the total energy usage of the facility does not exceed the set allocation.

Disclosed is a process that relates to the recovery of a metal catalyst from an oxidizer purge stream produced in the synthesis of carboxylic acid, typically terephthalic acid. The process involves the addition of a wash solution to a high temperature molten dispersion to recover the metal catalyst and then subjecting an aqueous mixture or purified aqueous mixture so formed to a single stage extraction to remove organic impurities to produce an extract stream and a raffinate stream comprising the metal catalyst.

The method and system of the present invention provides for data gathering of energy systems, calculation of billing information for the energy systems to include both traditional energy sources and renewable energy sources, and creation of various outputs to include various user interfaces applicable to overall management of the energy systems. The user interfaces can include integrated, real-time billings to a consumer that measure the cost of the primary energy as well as savings provided by renewable energy sources. The present invention also provides predictive analysis for various aspects of energy use in order to better manage particular facilities that may incorporate renewable energy sources. The gathered data and the various user interfaces enables a user to modify or adjust the use of the renewable energy sources at selected sites to maximize their impact on reducing the cost of the primary energy bill.

An air conditioning system and control method to allow individual zone thermostats to directly control a variable capacity compressor and adaptively adjust the indoor supply air volume to meet zoning demands, without using static pressure or flow sensors or entering a set of pre-defined air flow values for each zone into a controller. The method controls an air conditioning system that is able to receive signals or commands from individual zone thermostats and give priority to a highest demand zone/thermostat. For example, a priority thermostat can be used to directly control the variable capacity compressor via an indoor controller and outdoor controller.

A system and method for cooling and heating of buildings consisting of an integrated assembly of devices, including a variable speed air handler, hot water heating coil, outside air damper, controller, and optional compressor-based air conditioner. During summer the system utilizes nighttime outside air for cooling and uses air temperature predictions to provide information about optimal control settings and to maintain comfort. During winter the system varies airflow with heating demand and ventilates with outside air to maintain indoor air quality.

A method for reducing and re-using waste heat and water resulting from thermal hydrocarbon recovery operations involving accessing a hot water stream produced in a thermal hydrocarbon recovery operation; vaporizing water from the water stream by applying a vacuum, thereby producing water vapor; and condensing the water vapor to produce high quality water. A system is described including a hot water intake interfacing with a hot water stream from a thermal hydrocarbon recovery operation; a vaporization module receiving the hot water stream from the hot water intake, comprising a vacuum chamber in which a vacuum is applied to produce water vapor from the hot water stream; a condensation module in which water vapor produced in the vaporization module is condensed to form high quality water; and a water outlet for releasing the high quality water from the condensation module for re-use within the thermal hydrocarbon recovery operation.

An active wheel desiccant dehumidifier is controlled for improved energy savings by modulating operation characteristics including process air flow, reactivation air flow, temperatures, and wheel rotation in response to changing conditions.

A system and method intelligently control power consumption of distributed services using a computer system that provides independent computing elements each capable of entering a power saving mode. In accordance with the present invention, three different algorithms are disclosed. The first algorithm is a reduced load power saving algorithm. As the load decreases, duplicate instances of services can be gracefully suspended and the host processor cards hosting these instances can enter a power saving mode. The second algorithm is a priority-based power consumption reduction algorithm. If power consumption must be reduced, services having less of a contribution to revenue are suspended before components that having a higher contribution to revenue. The third algorithm is a minimal power-consuming redundant computing hardware algorithm that allows a “cold spare” host processing card to be pressed into service if another card fails.

Actuator apparatus having a multi-stable element actuated by memory alloy actuating elements. In one embodiment, the multi-stable actuator comprises a bistable (two-state) diaphragm element adapted to alternate between two stable configurations via forces exerted on the diaphragm by more than one memory alloy filaments in response to thermal activation. The bistable diaphragm element is coupled to a magnetic actuator element resident on a dry portion of a valve fitting, while a plunger actuated by the magnetic actuator element is resident on a wet portion of a valve fitting. Methods for making and using the bistable actuator apparatus are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a system for producing ethanol from an organic source and that operates to purify and dry ethanol from a beer source. The system for producing substantially anhydrous ethanol comprises: (a) a first distillation stripping column that operates between 160 to 220 degrees F.; (b) a second distillation rectifying column having a higher operating temperature than said stripping column; (c) a molecular sieve dehydration means in fluid communication with said rectifying column; and (d) an energy control means.

Adaptive controller apparatus of a plant may be implemented. The controller may comprise an encoder block and a control block. The encoder may utilize basis function kernel expansion technique to encode an arbitrary combination of inputs into spike output. The controller may comprise spiking neuron network operable according to reinforcement learning process. The network may receive the encoder output via a plurality of plastic connections. The process may be configured to adaptively modify connection weights in order to maximize process performance, associated with a target outcome. The relevant features of the input may be identified and used for enabling the controlled plant to achieve the target outcome. The stochasticity of the learning process may be modulated. Stochasticity may be increased during initial stage of learning in order to encourage exploration. During subsequent controller operation, stochasticity may be reduced to reduce energy use by the controller.