INHIBITING DELETERIOUS CONTROL COUPLING IN AN ENCLOSURE HAVING MULTIPLE HVAC REGIONS

• US 20140052300A1
• Filed: 01/03/2012
• Published: 02/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nest Labs Incorporated (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Matsuoka, Yoky, Rogers, Matthew Lee, Sharan, Rangoli, Fadell, Michael Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 9,851,728 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/276
• 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 11/46 Improving electric energy efficiency or saving
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/65 for selecting an operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2130/20 Sunlight
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2221/32 preventing human errors during the installation, use or maintenance, e.g. goofy proof
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1917 using digital means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1919 characterised by the type of controller

Abstract

The current application is related to environmental-conditioning systems controlled by intelligent controllers and, in particular, to an intelligent-thermostat-controlled HVAC system that detects and ameliorates control coupling between intelligent thermostats. Control coupling can lead to inefficient HVAC operation. When control coupling is detected, a settings-adjustment directive is sent to at least one intelligent thermostat to adjust one or more intelligent-thermostat settings, including an HVAC-cycle-initiation delay parameter, swing parameter, and a parameter that indicates whether or not an intelligent thermostat should first obtain confirmation or permission before initiating an HVAC cycle.

Claims

1. A thermostat comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more electronic memories;

a control program stored within the one or more electronic memories and executed by the one or more processors that controls operation of an HVAC unit; and

a control-program control-coupled-thermostat decoupling subcomponent that receives settings-adjustment messages from a monitor and adjusts a thermostat setting as directed by the settings-adjustment messages in order to decouple control-coupling between the thermostat and one or more remote thermostats collocated with the thermostat in a multi-region building or other multi-region environment.

2. The thermostat of claim 1 wherein each settings-adjustment message indicates a change in one or more thermostat settings.

3. The thermostat of claim 2 wherein thermostat settings, adjustment of which are specified in settings-adjustment messages, include:

an HVAC-cycle-delay parameter that indicates a time delay between determination to initiate a new HVAC cycle, by the thermostat, and initiation of the new HVAC cycle;

a swing parameter that specifies a range of temperatures within which new HVAC cycles are not initiated; and

a parameter that controls whether or not the thermostat seeks permission from the monitor prior to initiating a new HVAC cycle.

4. The thermostat of claim 3 wherein, when the parameter that controls whether or not the thermostat seeks permission from the monitor prior to initiating a new HVAC cycle set to indicate that the thermostat seeks permission from the monitor prior to initiating a new HVAC cycle, the thermostat, after determining to initiate a new HVAC cycle, sends a message to the monitor to request permission to initiate the new HVAC cycle and initiates the new HVAC cycle when the monitor responds to the message sent by the thermostat.

5. The thermostat of claim 3

wherein the HVAC-cycle-delay parameter is a fine-grain adjustment that is adjusted most frequently by the monitor;

wherein the swing parameter is a coarser-grain adjustment than the HVAC-cycle-delay parameter, and is adjusted less frequently than the HVAC-cycle-delay parameter; and

wherein the parameter that controls whether or not the thermostat seeks permission from the monitor prior to initiating a new HVAC cycle is the coarsest-grain adjustment that is adjusted least frequently by the monitor.

6. The thermostat of claim 1 wherein the monitor is remote from the thermostat and the setting-adjustment messages are sent by wired or wireless communications from the monitor to the thermostat.

7. The thermostat of claim 1 wherein the monitor is local with respect to the thermostat and the setting-adjustment messages are shared-memory messages or direct settings adjustments by the monitor to locally stored settings.

8. A monitor comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more electronic memories;

a monitor program stored within the one or more electronic memories and executed by the one or more processors that

monitors operation of collocated thermostats; and

upon detecting an onset of control coupling between two or more collocated thermostats, sends one or more settings-adjustment messages to one or more of the collocated thermostats in order to decouple control coupling between the two or more of the collocated thermostats.

9. The monitor of claim 8 wherein the monitor detects the onset of control coupling between two or more collocated thermostats by reviewing recent HVAC-cycle initialization data stored in one or more of the one or more electronic memories and determining that the frequency of HVAC-cycle initiation has increased.

10. The monitor of claim 8 wherein the monitor detects the onset of control coupling between two or more collocated thermostats by comparing recent HVAC-cycle initialization data stored in one or more of the one or more electronic memories with historical data collected under similar environmental conditions and determining that the recent HVAC-cycle initialization data contains a different pattern of HVAC-cycle initialization than contained in the historical data.

11. The monitor of claim 8 wherein the monitor detects the onset of control coupling between two or more collocated thermostats by reviewing recent HVAC-cycle data stored in one or more of the one or more electronic memories and determining that the lengths of HVAC cycles are increasing or decreasing.

12. The monitor of claim 8 wherein the monitor detects the onset of control coupling between two or more collocated thermostats by comparing recent HVAC-cycle data stored in one or more of the one or more electronic memories with historical data collected under similar environmental conditions and determining that the lengths of recent HVAC cycles are different than the lengths of HVAC cycles contained in the historical data.

13. The monitor of claim 8 wherein each settings-adjustment message indicates a change in one or more thermostat settings.

14. The monitor of claim 13 wherein thermostat settings, adjustment of which are specified in settings-adjustment messages, include:

an HVAC-cycle-delay parameter that indicates a time delay between determination to initiate a new HVAC cycle, by the settings-adjustment-receiving thermostat, and initiation of the new HVAC cycle;

a swing parameter that specifies a range of temperatures within which new HVAC cycles are not initiated; and

a parameter that controls whether or not the settings-adjustment-receiving thermostat seeks permission from the monitor prior to initiating a new HVAC cycle.

15. The monitor of claim 14 wherein, when the monitor has sent settings-adjustment messages to collocated thermostats, the monitor responds to messages from collocated thermostats so that only a single one of the collocated thermostats initiates an HVAC cycle at any given point in time during monitor control of HVAC-cycle initiation.

16. The monitor of claim 14 wherein, when the monitor has sent settings-adjustment messages to collocated thermostats, the monitor responds to messages from collocated thermostats so that only a single one of the collocated thermostats initiates and completes an HVAC cycle at any given point in time during monitor control of HVAC-cycle initiation.

17. The monitor of claim 14 wherein, when the monitor has sent settings-adjustment messages to collocated thermostats, the monitor responds to messages from collocated thermostats so that the frequency of HVAC-cycle initiation is decreased, over time.

18. The monitor of claim 14 wherein, when the monitor has sent settings-adjustment messages to collocated thermostats, the monitor responds to messages from collocated thermostats so that the lengths of HVAC cycles of at least one HVAC unit are increased, over time.

19. The monitor of claim 14 wherein, when the monitor has sent settings-adjustment messages to collocated thermostats, the monitor responds to messages from collocated thermostats so that the lengths of HVAC cycles of at least one HVAC unit are decreased, over time.

20. The monitor of claim 8 wherein the monitor is remote from the collocated thermostats and the setting-adjustment messages are sent by wired or wireless communications from the monitor to the thermostat.

21. The monitor of claim 8 wherein the monitor is local with respect to at least one of the collocated thermostats and the setting-adjustment messages are shared-memory messages or direct settings adjustments by the monitor to locally stored settings within the at least one collocated thermostat local to the monitor.