SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING UTILITY COMMODITY COST AND USAGE DATA AT A SUBSCRIBER'S LOCATION AND FOR LOCAL OR REMOTE CONTROL OF UTILITY COMMODITY USAGE

摘要

A system is disposed at a location of a utility commodity subscriber for informing the subscriber of utility commodity cost and usage and for controlling utility commodity usage. The system includes one or more utility meters, an information and control apparatus, a first data communication link, and a second data communication link. The one or more meters measure usage of one or more utility commodity and for generating one or more usage signals including a measurement of the subscriber's usage of the one or more utility commodities. The information and control apparatus includes a microprocessor, a memory, a clock, and a user interface, for inputting and outputting information. The first data communication link is between the one or more utility meters and the information and control apparatus and provides the one or more usage signals to said information and control apparatus for storage in the memory. The second data communication link is between the information and control apparatus and one or more central locations associated with the one or more utility commodity. The second communication link also provides rate information related to usage of the one or more utility commodity from the one or more central location to the information and control apparatus and provides utility commodity usage data from the information and control apparatus to the one or more central location. The microprocessor computes an accumulated cost of one or more utility commodity for a predetermined period of time according to the clock, the one or more usage signal, and the rate information. Information related to the accumulated cost is provided to the user interface for output to the subscriber.