Thermostat
First Claim
1. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of air in a zone within selectively determined operating limits using a single HVAC unit in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a damper, operated by control means, in a duct communicating with a zone, a thermostat for activating and deactivating the control means, said thermostat comprising:
- first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing the operating limits for the zone and providing a first digital word output signal representative of the operating limits;
second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein;
third circuit means responsive to output signals from said first and second circuit means for providing third digital word output signals for operating the control means of the damper; and
programmable logic means for providing digital word input signals to said third circuit means for selectively controlling the operation of the control means of a damper by said third circuit means.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A microcomputer-controlled thermostat for use in monitoring and controlling a single zone HVAC system which provides conditioned air to one or more zones. The thermostat can be programmed and used either as a monitor thermostat to control the HVAC unit alone and/or to control the HVAC unit and its damper in a multiple zone mode. The thermostat is also programmed as a slave thermostat in a master-slave relationship with a monitor thermostat. The microcomputer memory is supplemented with additional ROM containing control algorithms for use in system operation.
124 Citations
73 Claims
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1. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of air in a zone within selectively determined operating limits using a single HVAC unit in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a damper, operated by control means, in a duct communicating with a zone, a thermostat for activating and deactivating the control means, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing the operating limits for the zone and providing a first digital word output signal representative of the operating limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means responsive to output signals from said first and second circuit means for providing third digital word output signals for operating the control means of the damper; and programmable logic means for providing digital word input signals to said third circuit means for selectively controlling the operation of the control means of a damper by said third circuit means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of air in a plurality of zones within selectively determined operating limits using a single HVAC unit operated by a control means in which conditioned air passes into each zone via a damper, operated by control means, in a duct communicating with a zone, a thermostat for activating and deactivating the control means, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing the operating limits for a zone and providing a first digital word output signal representative of the operating limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means responsive to output signals from said first and second circuit means for providing third digital word output signals for operating the control means of one damper and the control means of an HVAC unit; and programmable logic means for providing digital word input signals to said third circuit means for selectively controlling the operation of the control means of a damper and the control means of the HVAC unit by said third circuit means. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of the air in a zone within operating limits using a single zone HVAC unit in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a damper in a duct communicating with a zone, a thermostat for activating and deactivating the control means, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing the operating limits for the zone and providing first digital word output signals representative of the operating limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means adapted to be coupled to a peripheral circuit means for receiving data from a peripheral circuit means and for providing a third digital word output signal representative of the information contained in such data; fourth circuit means responsive to output signals from said first, second and third circuit means for providing fourth digital word output signals for operating the control means of a damper; and programmable logic means operatively coupled to said fourth circuit means for selectively modifying the response of said fourth circuit means to the output signal of said first circuit means for selectively controlling the changing of the operating limits. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37)
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38. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of the air in a zone within operating limits using a single zone HVAC unit in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a damper operated by a control means in a duct communicating with the zone, a thermostat for activating and deactivating the control, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing first operating limits for the zone and providing first digital word output signals representative of the operating limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means adapted to be coupled to a peripheral circuit means for receiving data from a peripheral circuit means and for providing a third digital word output signal representative of the information contained in such data; fourth circuit means responsive to output signals from said first, second, and third circuit means for providing fourth digital word output signals for operating the control means of a damper; and programmable logic means operatively coupled to said fourth circuit means for selectively providing second operating limits for a zone to said fourth circuit means. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40)
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41. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of the air in a zone within operating limits using a single zone HVAC unit in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a damper, operated by a control means, in a duct communicating with the zone, a thermostat for activating and deactivating the control means, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing said operating limits for the zone and providing first digital word output signals representative of said limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means responsive to output signals for providing third digital word output signals for operating the control means of a damper; and programmable logic means operatively coupled to said second circuit means for selectively modifying the said second digital word output signal for calibration of said signals representative of the condition of the air in a zone. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44)
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45. A method of controlling the setpoints of a thermostat used in a system for the controlling and monitoring the condition of air in a zone in which said thermostat include means for enabling and disabling the setpoint change function comprising the sequential steps of:
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a. selectively enabling the setpoint change function; b. establishing the setpoints of the thermostat; c. locking the setpoint so established; and d. selectively disabling the setpoint change function. - View Dependent Claims (46)
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47. A method of calibrating a thermostat which uses a digital signal representative of the condition of air in a zone, comprising the steps of:
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a. determining the actual condition of air in said zone; b. monitoring said digital signal; and c. selectively altering said digital signal until said signal is representative of the actual condition of the air in said zone. - View Dependent Claims (48)
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49. A method of calibrating a thermostat which uses a digital signal representative of the condition of air entering a zone, comprising the steps of:
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a. determining the actual condition of air entering said zone; b. monitoring said digital signal; and c. selectively altering the digital signal until said signal is representative of the actual condition of air entering a zone. - View Dependent Claims (50)
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51. A method of controlling setpoints of a programmable thermostat having a microprocessor and a memory used in a system for the control and monitoring the condition of air in a zone comprising the steps of:
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a. entering the setpoints of the thermostat in the memory of the thermostat; b. programming the microprocessor of the thermostat to disable the setpoint change function in response to a first input signal; and c. programming the microprocessor of the thermostat to enable the setpoint change function in response to a second input signal notwithstanding a first input signal which otherwise disables changing the setpoint function. - View Dependent Claims (52)
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53. A method for calibration of a digital temperature signal derived from an analog/digital converter which receives an input signal from an analog temperature sensor and which supplies an output signal to a microprocessor having memory and an input from a logic circuit comprising the steps of:
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a. determining the actual temperature by an accurate thermometer at the location of the analog temperature sensor; b. monitoring the output of the analog/digital converter; c. selectively manipulating the memory using the digital output of a logic circuit to alter the bits in the digital output signal of the microprocessor until said output signal is representative of the actual temperature at said location.
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54. A method of controlling setpoints of a programmable thermostat having a microprocessor and a memory used in a system for the control and monitoring the condition of air in a zone comprising the steps of:
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a. entering the setpoints of the thermostat in the memory of the thermostat in the form of a first digital word; b. programming the microprocessor of the thermostat to lock the setpoint change function in response to a first input signal wherein said first input signal is in the form of a second digital word; and c. programming the microprocessor of the thermostat to override the lock of the setpoint change function in response to a second input signal corresponding to a third digital word.
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55. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of air within a zone within selectively determined operating limits using a single HVAC unit, operated by a control means, in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a duct communicating with each zone, a thermostat for controlling the control means of the HVAC unit, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing the operating limits for the zone and providing a first digital word output signal representative of the operating limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means responsive to output signals from said first and second circuit means for providing third digital word output signals for operating the control means of the HVAC unit; and programmable logic means for providing digital word input signals to said third circuit means for selectively controlling the operation of the control means of an HVAC unit by said third circuit means. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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63. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of the air in a zone within operating limits using a single zone HVAC unit operated by control means, in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a damper in a duct communicating with the zone, a thermostat for controlling the operation of a control means of the HVAC unit, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing the operating limits for the zone and providing first digital word output signals representative of the operating limits of said limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means adapted to be coupled to a peripheral circuit means for receiving data from a peripheral circuit means and for providing a third digital word output signal representative of the information contained in such data; fourth circuit means responsive to output signals from said first, second and third circuit means for providing fourth digital word output signals for operating the control means of an HVAC unit; programmable logic means operatively coupled to said fourth circuit means for selectively modifying the response of said fourth circuit means to the output signal of said first circuit means for selectively controlling the changing of said operating limits. - View Dependent Claims (64, 65, 66)
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67. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of the air in a zone within operating limits using a single zone HVAC unit operated by a control means, in which conditioned air passes into the zone via a damper in a duct communicating with the zone, a thermostat for activating and deactivating the control means of an HVAC unit, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing first operating limits for the zone and providing a first digital word output signal representative of the operating limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means adapted to be coupled to a peripheral circuit means for receiving data from a peripheral circuit means and for providing a third digital word output signal representative of the information contained in such data; fourth circuit means responsive to output signals from said first, second, and third circuit means for providing fourth digital word output signals for operating a control means of an HVAC unit; and programmable logic means operatively coupled to said fourth circuit means for selectively providing second operating limits for the zone to said fourth circuit means. - View Dependent Claims (68, 69)
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70. In a system for monitoring and controlling the condition of air in a zone within selectively determined operating limits using a single HVAC unit operated by a control means in which air passes into the zone via a damper, operated by control means, in a duct communicating with each zone, a thermostat for activating or deactivating the control means of an HVAC unit, said thermostat comprising:
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first circuit means responsive to input signals for establishing said operating limits for said zone and providing a first digital word output signal representative of the operating limits; second circuit means responsive to input signals indicative of the actual condition of the air in the zone for providing a second digital word output signal representative of the condition of the air therein; third circuit means responsive to output signals from said first and second circuit means for providing third digital word output signals for operating the control means of an HVAC unit; and programmable logic means for providing digital word input signals to said third circuit means for selectively controlling the operation of an HVAC unit by said third circuit means. - View Dependent Claims (71, 72, 73)
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Specification