Remote contractor system with site specific energy audit capability

• US 10,371,400 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2014
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Quam, David, Ragland, Amy, Peterson, Steve R., Paine, Brad, Davalos, Pedro, Kolavennu, Soumitri, Foslien, Wendy
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Van H
• Application Number:
  US14/531,368
• Publication Number:
  US 20150127169A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,737 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/38 Failure diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/56 Remote control
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/58 using Internet communication
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/63 Electronic processing
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/64 using pre-stored data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/70 Control systems characterised by their outputs; Constructional details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/89 Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/00 Control inputs relating to air properties
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24033 Failure, fault detection and isolation
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2614 HVAC, heating, ventillation, climate control
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34477 Fault prediction, analyzing signal trends
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 : involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/82 : Energy audits or management systems therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 : Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A system that allows a contractor to remotely monitor and/or interact with its customers'"'"' building control systems, such as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and analyze information obtained from the building control systems over time. Such a system may help the contractor monitor and diagnosis customer building control systems, setup service calls, achieve better customer relations, create more effective marketing opportunities, as well as other functions. In some cases, the disclosed system may include a controller that analyzes data from HVAC systems, determines a thermal model of a space environmentally controlled by an HVAC system, and provides an energy audit of the space that is environmentally controlled by the HVAC system. The controller may output a result of the energy audit to a user.

Claims

1. A remote system configured to communicate with an HVAC controller, wherein the HVAC controller executes a control algorithm for controlling one or more HVAC components of an HVAC system of a building and the remote system is remote from the building, the remote system comprising:

a communications port;

a memory;

a controller coupled to the communications port and the memory, wherein the controller develops a thermal model of a space environmentally controlled by the HVAC system based at least in part on data related to operation of the HVAC system over time, where the data related to the operation of the HVAC system is received over time from the HVAC controller via the communications port and stored in the memory; and

the controller provides an indication of thermal efficiency of the space that is based at least in part on the thermal model, and outputs the indication of thermal efficiency to a user interface via the communications port.

2. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the remote system has access to outdoor weather data for a geographical area that encompasses the building, the controller develops the thermal model based at least in part on the outdoor weather data.

3. The remote system of claim 2, wherein the geographical area corresponds to a zip code.

4. The remote system of claim 2, wherein the outdoor weather data for the geographical area includes data related to one or more of outdoor temperature, outdoor humidity, cloudiness, solar radiation, precipitation, wind speed, wind direction, allergy alerts.

5. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the thermal model is dependent at least partially on one or more time based events including one or more of time of day, a season, a specified date, and a specified date range.

6. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the received data includes indoor temperature, outdoor temperature, and temperature setpoints relative to time.

7. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the controller provides one or more of a heating degree days indication and a cooling degree days indication based at least in part on the thermal model.

8. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the controller provides the indication of thermal efficiency of the space and an indication of efficiency of the HVAC system based at least in part on the thermal model.

9. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the controller provides an indication of efficiency of the HVAC system trended over time based at least in part on the thermal model.

10. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the received data includes ambient temperature gains and losses with a numerical precision of 0.1 degree Fahrenheit or greater as sensed by a temperature sensor of the HVAC system.

11. The remote system of claim 1, wherein the received data includes a change in ambient temperature sensed by a temperature sensor of the HVAC system at intervals of up to one minute.

12. A remote system configured to communicate with an HVAC controller, wherein the HVAC controller executes a control algorithm for controlling one or more HVAC components of an HVAC system of a building and the remote system is remote from the building, the remote system comprising:

a communications port;

a memory;

a controller coupled to the communications port and the memory, wherein the controller is configured to develop and output an estimate of future performance of the HVAC system based at least in part on data related to an operation of the HVAC system over time, wherein the data is received over time from the HVAC controller via the communications port and is saved in the memory.

13. The remote system of claim 12, wherein the received data includes one or more of indoor temperature data, indoor humidity data, temperature setpoint data, outdoor temperature data, outdoor humidity data, heating activation data, and cooling activation data.

14. The remote system of claim 12, wherein the estimate of future performance of the HVAC system is based at least in part on a customized thermal model developed for the building.

15. The remote system of claim 12, wherein the controller compares the estimate of future performance of the HVAC system to actual performance of the HVAC system.

16. The remote system of claim 12, wherein the estimate of future performance of the HVAC system includes an estimate of HVAC system run time that is based at least in part on a customized thermal model developed for the building with inputs of an outdoor temperature, an outdoor humidity, and a setpoint temperature of the HVAC controller.

17. A remote contractor system comprising:

a communications port;

a memory;

a controller coupled to the communications port and the memory;

wherein the controller develops a customized thermal model for each of the two or more buildings based at least in part on data related to operation of two or more HVAC controllers of two or more HVAC systems, each servicing one of the two or more buildings, that is received via the communications port over time and saved in the memory, wherein the received data includes one or more of indoor temperature data, indoor humidity data, temperature setpoint data, outdoor temperature data, outdoor humidity data, heating activity data, and cooling activity data;

wherein the controller generates a predicted HVAC system run time for each of the two or more buildings based, at least in part, on the corresponding customized thermal model; and

wherein the controller outputs a report for each of the two or more buildings that is based at least in part on an actual HVAC system run time versus the predicted HVAC system run time.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the report compares an actual HVAC system run time for a particular building to predicted HVAC system run times of two or more other buildings.