USER INTERFACE TO FACILITATE, ANALYZE AND MANAGE RESOURCE CONSUMPTION

摘要

A user interface (1g) for a system for facilitating the buying and selling resources consumed, such as energy, over time by using a network such as the Internet. Aspects of the system include metering (1a) the actual use of the commodity, analysis of time of use patterns, using the Internet or other network to provide user interfaces and transfers of information. The system allows a consumer to acquire, maintain and manipulate usage statistics to allow for more intelligent planning and purchasing of the commodity. The system allows a consumer to plan consumption so as to optimize usage patterns during peak usage hours to stay under certain critical usage parameters, and to optimize acquisition cost. Information can be downloaded to a computer (1d, 1f) and evaluated in real time or at a later time in 3rd party applications and analysis tools, such as a spreadsheet application. This provides flexible exploration and manipulation of the information. Existing, traditional, buying and regulatory procedures and rules, for example tariffs and federal and local laws, are taken into account by the system. A buyer of resources can create an auction to permit resource suppliers to bid to supply the resource to the buyer.