Climate control

• US 8,374,725 B1
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Joseph David Ols
• Original Assignee: Joseph David Ols
• Inventors: Ols, Joseph David
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta, Kidest
• Application Number:
  US12/315,152
• Time in Patent Office: 1,539 Days
• Field of Search: 700/277, 700/276, 700/275, 261/118, 715/777, 715/863
• US Class Current: 700/277
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/0008 for air-humidification F24F11/30 takes precedence
• 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 11/523 for displaying temperature data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/58 using Internet communication
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/61 using timers
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/64 using pre-stored data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/77 by controlling the speed of ventilators
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/80 for controlling the temperature of the supplied air
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 13/1426 characterised by actuating means
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2013/1446 with gearings
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/10 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/20 Humidity
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/00 Control inputs relating to users or occupants
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 22/02 characterised by the use of electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1917 using digital means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 27/02 characterised by the use of electric means

Abstract

A system is provided in which the dampers may be individually controlled. The climate control system may be retrofit to an existing climate control system by connecting the controller to the existing climate control equipment through the thermostat interface. The climate control system may be monitored and set via a remote server.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

climate control equipment; and

a controller for directly controlling climate control equipment by turning the climate control equipment on and off to obtain a desired setting, the controller being connected to the climate control equipment, and the controller connecting to a thermostat interface, circumventing a legacy controller;

one or more sensors for sensing climate parameters including at least temperature and humidity, the sensor being communicatively coupled to the controller;

the controller storing instructions that cause the controller to maintain a humidity adjusted temperature in an area.

2. The system of claim 1, the system being configured to include a mode in which the interface displays

a humidity adjusted temperature, the humidity adjusted temperature being a temperature at a current humidity that is expected to feel as comfortable to the user as the current temperature at a predetermined reference humidity;

and

input a setting that allows the user to set a desired humidity adjusted temperature, which will cause the controller to adjust the temperature or humidity until temperature at a current humidity is a temperature that is expected to feel as comfortable to the user as a predetermined desired temperature at a predetermined reference humidity, the reference humidity being different than the current humidity.

3. A system comprising:

climate control equipment; and

a controller for directly controlling climate control equipment by turning the climate control equipment on and off to obtain a desired setting, the controller being connected to the climate control equipment, and the controller connecting to a thermostat interface, circumventing a legacy controller;

the controller storing

a plurality of climate preference settings with each climate preference setting corresponding to a different user;

instructions for regulating the climate of plurality of locations, the instructions causing the controller to regulate the climate of each location at a given time based on the climate preference settings of each user expected to be at that location at the given time.

4. A system comprising:

climate control equipment; and

a controller for directly controlling climate control equipment by turning the climate control equipment on and off to obtain a desired setting, the controller being connected to the climate control equipment, and the controller connecting to a thermostat interface, circumventing a legacy controller;

the controller storing one or more instructions that cause the controller to

determine through which of a plurality of vents to pull air through, each of the plurality of vents being installed in a building in which the system is installed, based at least on a current mode of operation and a current climate in a plurality of locations, each of the plurality of locations being one of a set of at least two locations between which air is transmitted via at least one of the plurality of vents.

5. A system comprising:

climate control equipment; and

a controller for directly controlling climate control equipment by turning the climate control equipment on and off to obtain a desired setting, the controller being connected to the climate control equipment, and the controller connecting to a thermostat interface, circumventing a legacy controller;

the controller storing one or more instructions that causes the controller to

send air to a first room having a first climate condition, in response to a climate measurement, to adjust the first room to have a second climate condition based on a climate setting for the first room;

transfer the air having the first climate condition from the first room to a second room having air of a third climate condition to adjust the second room to have a fourth climate condition, based on a climate setting for the second room.

6. A system comprising:

climate control equipment having

climate modifying equipment,

circuitry that controls the climate modifying equipment,

a thermostat interface with a set of parameters that are controlled via the thermostat interface,

the circuitry communicating with the thermostat interface, the circuitry having portions for controlling each parameter of the set of parameters by controlling the climate modifying equipment in a particular way for each parameter; and

a controller for controlling the climate control equipment, the controller being connected to the climate control equipment via the thermostat interface and controlling at least a subset of the parameters, the controller controlling at least one of the parameters via the thermostat interface, but in a different manner than the particular way for that parameter.

7. The system of claim 6, the set of parameters including an intermediate setting for at least one piece of equipment of the climate modifying equipment, the controller turning on and off the piece of equipment instead of activating the intermediate setting.

8. The system of claim 6, the circuitry including a programmable timer via which a schedule of times of when different climate settings are applied are programmable, the controller having a separate programmable timer and scheduling when the different climate settings will be applied without programming the programmable timer of the circuitry.

9. A system comprising:

climate control equipment; and

a controller configured to directly control climate control equipment by turning the climate control equipment on and off to obtain a desired setting, the controller being connected to the climate control equipment, and the controller connecting to a thermostat interface, the turning of the climate control equipment to an on state and to an off state, via the thermostat interface, to obtain a desired setting circumvents a legacy controller that is also configured to obtain the desired setting, the desired setting being a setting that is not obtainable by keeping the climate control equipment always in the on state or always in the off state.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a plurality of locations, each location having at least one damper;

the controller storing instructions that cause the controller to adjust each damper based on user chosen climate preferences, the instructions causing the controller to adjust the position of each damper based on a separate set of climate settings.

11. The system of claim 9, the controller storing one or more instructions that cause the controller to

store a list of locations,

automatically identify a group of the locations that have similar settings and create a dynamic zone for the group of locations identified.

12. The system of claim 9, the controller storing one or more instructions that cause the controller to

determine through which of a plurality of vents to take air in from outside of a building in which the system is installed, based at least on a current outside climate, a current inside climate, and a current mode of operation.

13. The system of claim 9, the controller storing one or more instructions that causes the controller to

send relatively cool air to a first room having relatively hot air, in response to a temperature measurement, to maintain a climate condition based on a climate setting for the first room;

transfer the relatively hot air from the first room to a second room having relatively cool air to cool the second room, based on a climate setting for the second room;

the relatively cool air being cool relative to the relatively hot air, and the relatively hot air being hot relative to the relatively cool air.

14. The system of claim 9, the controller storing one or more instructions that causes the controller to

send relatively hot air to a first room having relatively cool air, in response to a temperature measurement, to maintain a climate condition based on a climate setting for the first room;

transfer the relatively cool air from the first room to a second room having relatively hot air to cool the second room, based on a climate setting for the second room;

the relatively cool air being cool relative to the relatively hot air, and the relatively hot air being hot relative to the relatively cool air.

15. The system of claim 9, the controller including a neural network that learns relationships between control instructions sent to the climate control equipment and resulting climate changes in different parts of a building whose climate is being controlled by the climate control equipment, based on recorded data of past changes in climate caused by control instructions implemented by the climate control equipment in the past.

16. The system of claim 9, the controller including a learning algorithm, which when implemented causes the controller to learn relationships between control instructions sent to the climate control equipment and resulting climate changes in different parts of a building whose climate is being controlled by the climate control equipment, based on recorded data of past changes in climate caused by control instructions implemented by the climate control equipment in the past.

17. The system of claim 9, the controller storing one or more instructions that causes the controller to

maintain air flow past a heat exchanger above a certain level for safe operation of the heat exchanger.

18. The system of claim 11, the controller storing machine instructions that handle climate settings of locations of a dynamic zone being no different than locations of any zone.

19. The system of claim 9, the turning of the climate control equipment on and off to obtain the desired setting including at least pulsing the climate control equipment on and off.

20. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

the controller storing instructions that cause the controller to adjust the at least one damper of each of plurality of locations based on user chosen climate preferences, each location having at least one damper, the instructions causing the controller to adjust the position of the at least one damper of each location based on a separate set of climate settings, each separate set of climate settings corresponding to a different set of user chosen climate preferences.

21. The system of claim 20, the instructions including at least one instruction for associating each set of user instructions with a different user.

22. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

the controller storing instructions that cause the controller

to receive sensor information indicative of locations of specific users;

to determine a location for each specific user;

to associate different climate settings with different users and adjust climate settings of each location based on which users are currently present at that location and the climate settings associated with the users currently at that location

to send signal to adjust positions of dampers at each location to facilitate adjusting climate parameters to meet the settings.

23. The system of claim 9, the instructions include instructions for the controller to choose a set of climate settings to apply to that location based on the user associated with that set of climate settings having a particular status and being at that location.

24. The system of claim 9, the controller storing instructions for collecting feedback from multiple sensors, each of the multiple sensors sensing the same climate parameter, the instructions determining one setting for that climate parameter for the room based on each of the feedback from each of the multiple sensors and a record of prior settings correlated with prior feedback from the multiple sensors.

25. The system of claim 9, the controller storing instructions for dividing a single room into multiple zones, collecting feedback from multiple sensors, each of the multiple sensors sensing the same climate parameter;

the instructions determining multiple setting for that climate parameter based on the feedback;

each of the multiple settings being applied to a different zone of the room.