POWER MANAGEMENT IN ENERGY BUFFERED BUILDING CONTROL UNIT
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A thermostat includes a plurality of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) wire connectors for receiving a plurality of HVAC control wires corresponding to an HVAC system. The thermostat also includes a thermostat processing and control circuit configured to at least partially control the operation of the HVAC system and a powering circuit coupled to the HVAC wire connectors and configured to provide an electrical load power to the thermostat processing and control circuit. The powering circuit has a power extraction circuit configured to extract electrical power from one or more of the plurality of received HVAC control wires up to a first level of electrical power, a rechargeable battery, and a power control circuit. The power control circuit is configured to provide the electrical load power using power from the power extraction circuit and the rechargeable battery.
46 Citations
40 Claims
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1-20. -20. (canceled)
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21. A thermostat, comprising:
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at least one Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) wire connector configured to receive at least one wire from an HVAC system; an AC-to-DC conversion circuit coupled to the at least one HVAC wire connector and configured to receive an AC signal from the HVAC system and convert the AC signal to a DC signal; a capacitive element storing energy provided by the DC signal from the AC-to-DC conversion circuit; a DC regulator receiving the energy stored in the capacitive storage element, the DC regulator providing a regulated electrical power; a rechargeable battery; and a battery-charging/discharging circuit coupled to the rechargeable battery and receiving the regulated electrical power from the DC regulator, the battery-charging/discharging circuit (i) providing an electrical load power to the thermostat, and (ii) selectively charging or discharging the rechargeable battery based at least in part on the electrical load power. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method comprising:
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receiving, through at least one Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) wire connector, an AC signal from an HVAC system; converting, using an AC-to-DC conversion circuit coupled to the at least one HVAC wire connector, the AC signal to a DC signal; storing energy provided by the DC signal in a capacitive element; receiving, using a DC regulator, the energy stored in the capacitive element and regulating the first electrical energy to provide regulated electrical power; providing, using a battery-charging/discharging circuit coupled to a rechargeable battery, an electrical load power to the thermostat; and selectively charging or discharging, using a battery-charging/discharging circuit, the rechargeable battery based at least in part on electrical load power. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification