Virtual Thermostat System and Method
First Claim
1. A virtual thermostat system comprising:
- a plurality of energy consumption units, each energy consumption unit having an input to accept an energy resource consumed at an associated peak power, an input to accept consumption commands, and an output to supply a controlled temperature medium to an associated zone;
a sensor associated with each zone, having an output to supply a temperature measurement responsive to the controlled temperature medium;
a virtual thermostat user interface (UI) to accept zone temperature set point inputs from a user, and to present temperature measurements for the plurality of zones;
a processor;
a non-transitory memory; and
,a peak power management application stored as a sequence of software instructions in the memory and executed by the processor, the peak power management application having an interface connected to the virtual thermostat UT for managing each energy consumption unit in response to its associated zone temperature set point, while insuring that a combined peak power of the energy consumption units is less than a maximum peak power threshold.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A virtual thermostat system and method are provided. The method accepts commands via a virtual thermostat interface for establishing temperature set points for a plurality of zones. Energy consumption information is also accepted from a plurality of energy consumption units. Each unit consumes energy at an associated peak power to supply a controlled temperature medium to a corresponding zone. The method also accepts temperature measurements for each zone. Then, consumption commands are sent to each energy consumption unit in response to associated zone temperature set points, while insuring that a combined peak power of the energy consumption units is less than a maximum peak power threshold. In one aspect, the virtual thermostat accepts temperature measurements from a plurality of physical thermostats, each associated with an energy consumption unit. Then, consumption commands are relayed to the energy consumption units via associated physical thermostats.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A virtual thermostat system comprising:
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a plurality of energy consumption units, each energy consumption unit having an input to accept an energy resource consumed at an associated peak power, an input to accept consumption commands, and an output to supply a controlled temperature medium to an associated zone; a sensor associated with each zone, having an output to supply a temperature measurement responsive to the controlled temperature medium; a virtual thermostat user interface (UI) to accept zone temperature set point inputs from a user, and to present temperature measurements for the plurality of zones; a processor; a non-transitory memory; and
,a peak power management application stored as a sequence of software instructions in the memory and executed by the processor, the peak power management application having an interface connected to the virtual thermostat UT for managing each energy consumption unit in response to its associated zone temperature set point, while insuring that a combined peak power of the energy consumption units is less than a maximum peak power threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A virtual thermostat method enabled as software instructions stored in a non-transitory memory and executed by a processor, the method comprising:
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accepting commands via a virtual thermostat interface for establishing temperature set points for a plurality of zones; accepting energy consumption information from a plurality of energy consumption units, each consuming energy at an associated peak power to supply a controlled temperature medium to a corresponding zone; accepting temperature measurements for each zone; and
,sending consumption commands to each energy consumption unit in response to associated zone temperature set points, while insuring that a combined peak power of the energy consumption units is less than a maximum peak power threshold. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification