HOME HEATING SERVER

• US 20120158190A1
• Filed: 12/21/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Belady, Christian L., James, Sean, Liu, Jie
• Granted Patent: US 8,548,640 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/277
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 12/00 Other central heating systems
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 19/1066 for the combination of central heating and domestic hot water
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 19/1084 for air heating systems
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 2200/29 Electrical devices, e.g. computers, servers
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 5/00 Hot-air central heating systems district heating systems F24D10/00; central heating systems using heat accumulated in storage masses F24D11/00; air conditioning F24F; Exhaust gas central heating systems
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 5/0096 combined with domestic apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1934 each space being provided with one sensor acting on one or more control means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/201 Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2829 involving user profiles according to which the execution of a home appliance functionality is automatically triggered
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 30/70 Efficient control or regulation technologies, e.g. for control of refrigerant flow, motor or heating

Abstract

A server computer may be located at a home or business and may be used for heating the home or business. The server computer may operate a distributed cloud based application and may generate heat in response to application load. The server computer may have an air or water based heat exchanger that may integrate into various heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to use the heat generated by the server. In some embodiments, a thermostat may regulate the application load on the server computer as controlled by a cloud based controller.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computing device having a heat transfer mechanism that transfers heat from said computing device to a building heating system on a premise;

said computing device executing a distributed cloud application that is controlled by a controller located off said premise;

said controller that further controls said distributed cloud application by adjusting a workload of said distributed cloud application in response to a heat request from a heat demand from said building heating system.

2. The system of claim 1, said heat transfer mechanism using air as a heat transfer medium.

3. The system of claim 2, said building heating system having at least one regulating valve.

4. The system of claim 3, said building heating system having a heat vent configuration that removes heat from said computing device and exhausts at least a portion of said heat to atmosphere.

5. The system of claim 1, said heat demand being determined by a thermostat located within said premises.

6. The system of claim 5, said controller receiving output from said thermostat.

7. The system of claim 1, said heat transfer mechanism using a liquid as a heat transfer medium.

8. The system of claim 1, said building heating system having a secondary heat source.

9. The system of claim 1, said computing device having at least one application controllable by a user within said premise.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of said computing devices having said heat transfer mechanism and executing said distributed cloud application.

11. A method comprising:

identifying a plurality of computing devices, said plurality of computing devices being located in a plurality of premises;

loading each of said plurality of computing devices with a distributed cloud application;

causing said distributed cloud application to be executed on said plurality of computing devices;

receiving an input from each of said premises; and

based on said input, assigning workloads to said distributed cloud applications.

12. The method of claim 11, said input being a heat request for a heating system for a building on said premises.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

detecting a fault with a first computing device at a first premise; and

notifying a user at said first premise.

14. The method of claim 11, said distributed cloud application being a delay tolerant application.

15. The method of claim 11, a first distributed cloud application at a first premise executing an identical workload as a second distributed cloud application on a second premise.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

receiving a first response from said first distributed cloud application and receiving a second response from said second distributed cloud application; and

comparing said first response to said second response to determine that said first response is equivalent to said second response and accepting said first response as a valid response.

17. A system comprising:

a computing device having a heat transfer mechanism incorporated into a building'"'"'s forced air heating system that transfers heat from said computing device to said building heating system on a premise;

said computing device executing a distributed cloud application that is controlled by a controller located off said premise, said controller further controlling a plurality of computing devices located at a plurality of premises; and

said controller that further controls said distributed cloud application by adjusting a workload of said distributed cloud application in response to a heat request from a heat demand from said building heating system.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

a ventilation system that is configurable to vent said heat to atmosphere.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

said ventilation system that is configurable to preheat air prior to said air passing over said heat transfer mechanism.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising:

a building system controller that receives a temperature measurement and transmits said heat request to said controller.