Patent Issued for System and method to provide savings based on reduced energy consumption (USPTO 11532005): United Services Automobile Association

2023 JAN 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11532005, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Ault, David C. (San Antonio, TX, US), Devereaux, Ramsey (San Antonio, TX, US), Haslam, Justin D. (San Antonio, TX, US), Hugos, Thuy (San Antonio, TX, US), Nickel, Christina N. (Boerne, TX, US), Read, Spencer (Helotes, TX, US), Rubin, Elizabeth J. (San Antonio, TX, US), Tarrillion, Ann C. (San Antonio, TX, US), Wheeler, Daniela (Boerne, TX, US).

This patent was filed on November 16, 2020 and was published online on December 20, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Smart home functionality is a maturing space, but the opportunity for insurance companies remains largely untapped. Currently, there are few useful early warning and loss mitigation systems that actually save costs and time for both the property owner and insurance company alike. For instance, currently, homeowners insurance claim events are detected by the homeowner, who then contacts his or her insurance company to inform them that there has been a loss. However, the loss could be mitigated with automated warning and detection systems that interface with the insurance company systems. For example, homeowners may not become aware of minor to medium hail damage to their roofs until such time as that damage leads to water damage to the exterior or interior of the home. If they could be made aware of such loss events earlier and then take corrective actions, then the increased damage and loss could have been mitigated or avoided.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The purpose and advantages of the below described illustrated embodiments will be set forth in and apparent from the description that follows. Additional advantages of the illustrated embodiments will be realized and attained by the devices, systems and methods particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof, as well as from the appended drawings.

“To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the illustrated embodiments, in one aspect, provided is a computer device and method for processing informatic data from one or more sensor devices associated with a property covered by an insurance policy. Analysis is performed on the informatic data received from the sensor devices to determine a cost associated with operating the insured property. Operational changes are identified and recommended regarding one or more operational aspects of the insured property to achieve a cost savings for operating the insured property. If one or more recommended operational changes are implemented, a realized cost savings is calculated which is attributable to the one or more operational changes. Monetary funds are transferred from a first financial account to a second financial account associated with a user of the insured property whereby the transfer funds amount is dependent upon the calculated realized cost savings.

“This summary section is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described subsequently in the detailed description section. This summary section is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer, cause the computer to: receive a first indication of a property associated with a savings analysis provision policy; electronically contact the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy based upon the first indication; based on the electronic contact, receive, at an analysis server, a first set of sensor data accumulated over a first time period at the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy, wherein the first set of sensor data relates to at least one operating characteristic of the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; receive a second indication of a second property, wherein the second property is similar to the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; electronically contact the second property based upon the second indication; based on the electronic contact, receive, at the analysis server, a second set of sensor data accumulated over the first time period at the second property, wherein the second set of sensor data relates to at least one operating characteristic of the second property; parse the first set of sensor data and the second set of sensor data to identify differences in operating characteristics associated with operating the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy and the second property; based on the identified differences, identify operational changes to be implemented at the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; send the identified operational changes to a designated custodian of the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; in response to sending the identified operational changes to the designated custodian of the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy, transmit an instruction to at least one sensor device, wherein the instruction comprises an instruction to take a series of readings, over a second time period, relating to the at least one operating characteristic of the property associated with savings analysis provision policy; receive a third set of sensor data accumulated over the second time period by the at least one sensor device at the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; determine that at least one of the identified operational changes has been implemented based on the third set of sensor data; and provide a notification indicating a provision of a discount, a rebate, a monetary transfer, or any combination thereof.

“2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein identifying the operational changes to be recommended includes achieving a target cost savings established by a user of the second property.

“3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the computer, cause the computer to perform the monetary transfer, wherein the monetary transfer is a transfer of funds from a first financial account to a second financial account.

“4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the first financial account and the second financial account are associated with a user of the second property.

“5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the funds transferred to the second financial account receive beneficial treatment as a reward for being attributable to implementation of the operational changes at the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy.

“6. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the first financial account is selected from the group consisting of: a savings account; a checking account a money market account; a certificate of deposit; a brokerage account; a mutual fund; an individual retirement account; a college savings account; an exchange-traded fund; a current property and casualty premium; a life insurance premium; an auto loan; a credit card; and a debit card.

“7. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer to: cause funds to be transferred from a third party to the second financial account, wherein an amount of the funds is determined based on an amount of the funds transferred from the first financial account to the second financial account.

“8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer to: trigger the provision of the discount, by: determining an insurance product change amount based upon the identified operational changes; and applying the change amount to the savings analysis provision policy associated with the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy.

“9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the savings analysis provision policy is one of a homeowner’s policy, a renter’s insurance policy, a rental property insurance policy, an automobile insurance policy, an umbrella insurance policy, a health insurance policy, and a life insurance policy.

“10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein application of the change amount is at least one of: reducing an insurance policy deductible, reducing an insurance policy premium, and increasing an insurance policy coverage amount.

“11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer to adjust at least one operating characteristic of the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy to implement the identified operational changes.

“12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer to: adjust the at least one operating characteristic, by adjusting performance of at least one appliance device associated with the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy.

“13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the at least one operating characteristic of the second property comprises energy consumption by one or more energy consumption devices associated with the second property.

“14. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving a first indication of a property associated with a savings analysis provision policy; electronically contacting the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy based upon the first indication; based on the electronic contact, receiving, at an analysis server, a first set of sensor data accumulated over a first time period at the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy, wherein the first set of sensor data relates to at least one operating characteristic of the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; receiving a second indication of a second property wherein the second property is similar to the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; electronically contacting the second property based upon the second indication; based on the electronic contact, receiving, at the analysis server, a second set of sensor data accumulated over the first time period at the second property, wherein the second set of sensor data relates to at least one operating characteristic of the second property; parsing the first set of sensor data and the second set of sensor data to identify differences in operating characteristics associated with operating the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy and the second property; based on the identified differences, identifying operational changes to be implemented at the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; sending the identified operational changes to a designated custodian of the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; in response to sending the identified operational changes to the designated custodian of the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy, transmit an instruction to at least one sensor device, wherein the instruction comprises an instruction to take a series of readings, over a second time period, relating to the at least one operating characteristic of the property associated with savings analysis provision policy; receiving a third set of sensor data accumulated over the second time period by the at least one sensor device at the property associated with the savings analysis provision policy; determining that at least one of the identified operational changes has been implemented based on the third set of sensor data; and provide a notification indicating a provision of a discount, a rebate, a monetary transfer, or any combination thereof.

“15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein identifying the operational changes to be recommended includes achieving a target cost savings established by a user of the second property.

“16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, comprising: performing the monetary transfer, wherein the monetary transfer is a transfer of funds from a first financial account associated with a user to a second financial account associated with the user or from a third-party financial account to the second financial account associated with the user, wherein the second financial account is selected from the group consisting of: a savings account; a checking account a money market account; a certificate of deposit; a brokerage account; a mutual fund; an individual retirement account; a college savings account; an exchange-traded fund; a current property and casualty premium; a life insurance premium; an auto loan; a credit card; and a debit card.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Ault, David C. System and method to provide savings based on reduced energy consumption. U.S. Patent Number 11532005, filed November 16, 2020, and published online on December 20, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11532005)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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