Temperature control voting system
First Claim
1. A method of controlling a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building, the method comprising:
- receiving, by at least one receiver in a zone of the building, a plurality of votes for a set-point temperature in the zone of the building from a plurality of mobile devices associated with the zone of the building and occupancy times of the zone of the building, wherein each of the plurality of mobile devices is associated with a corresponding user and executes a temperature control voting application, and wherein each vote is cast at a specific location according to a determined location of the respective user determined by a location of the respective mobile device;
weighting each of the plurality of votes to form a plurality of weighted votes, wherein the weighting the plurality of votes comprises giving a first vote associated with a first user of the plurality of votes a first weight and giving a second vote associated with a second user of the plurality of votes a second weight different than the first weight based on relative location of the first user to the zone of the building and relative location of the second user to the zone of the building, such that the first user vote cast within the zone of building is weighted greater than the second user vote located outside the zone of the building;
forming an aggregated plurality of votes based on an aggregation of the weighted plurality of votes; and
adjusting a set-point temperature in the zone of the building according to the aggregated plurality of votes and according to the occupancy times of the zone of the building, and by controlling the HVAC system to provide the adjusted set-point temperature.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A temperature voting system which receives votes indicating the temperature preferences of a plurality of occupants within a given HVAC zone, and adjusts a set-point temperature of a corresponding HVAC system accordingly. The votes may be received via a mobile device, an employee workstation, or from one or more biomedical devices. Each occupant may manually enter and submit a vote for their preferred set-point temperature, or a software application may be configured to automatically cast a vote for the corresponding occupant according to user-configurable preferences or current metabolic state. The received votes may be weighted according to a status of the voter, and aggregated to determine an appropriate set-point temperature. In some embodiments, near-field communication devices, GPS location technology, or other technology may be used to automatically detect the presence of an occupant within a HVAC zone and cast the occupant'"'"'s vote for a corresponding HVAC zone.
17 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of controlling a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building, the method comprising:
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receiving, by at least one receiver in a zone of the building, a plurality of votes for a set-point temperature in the zone of the building from a plurality of mobile devices associated with the zone of the building and occupancy times of the zone of the building, wherein each of the plurality of mobile devices is associated with a corresponding user and executes a temperature control voting application, and wherein each vote is cast at a specific location according to a determined location of the respective user determined by a location of the respective mobile device; weighting each of the plurality of votes to form a plurality of weighted votes, wherein the weighting the plurality of votes comprises giving a first vote associated with a first user of the plurality of votes a first weight and giving a second vote associated with a second user of the plurality of votes a second weight different than the first weight based on relative location of the first user to the zone of the building and relative location of the second user to the zone of the building, such that the first user vote cast within the zone of building is weighted greater than the second user vote located outside the zone of the building; forming an aggregated plurality of votes based on an aggregation of the weighted plurality of votes; and adjusting a set-point temperature in the zone of the building according to the aggregated plurality of votes and according to the occupancy times of the zone of the building, and by controlling the HVAC system to provide the adjusted set-point temperature. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A temperature control voting system for controlling a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system and a thermostat of a building, the temperature control voting system comprising:
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the thermostat; an HVAC controller, wherein the thermostat and/or the HVAC controller are configured to adjust a set-point temperature in at least one zone of the building; a plurality of mobile devices, each of the plurality of mobile devices associated with a corresponding user and executing a temperature control voting application; and at least one receiver in the at least one zone of the building, wherein the at least one receiver is configured to; communicate with the temperature control voting application executing on the plurality of mobile devices and with the HVAC controller and/or the thermostat; receive, from the temperature control voting application executing on the plurality of mobile devices, a plurality of votes for the set-point temperature in a zone of the at least one zone of the building, and wherein each vote is cast at a specific location according to a determined location of the respective user determined by a location of the respective mobile device; receive, from the temperature control voting application executing on the plurality of mobile devices, a location of a mobile device corresponding to each of the plurality of votes, wherein a first location of a first vote on a first mobile device is different than a second location of a second vote on the first mobile device; and transmit, to the HVAC controller and/or the thermostat, the plurality of votes for the set-point temperature in the zone of the building and the location corresponding to each of the plurality of votes, and wherein the HVAC controller and/or the thermostat is configured to; weight each of the plurality of votes to form a plurality of weighted votes, wherein weighting the plurality of votes comprises giving a first vote associated with a first user of the plurality of votes a first weight and giving a second vote associated with a second user of the plurality of votes a second weight different than the first weight based on relative location of the first user to the zone of the building and relative location of the second user to the zone of the building, such that the first user vote cast within the zone of building is weighted greater than the second user vote located outside the zone of the building; form an aggregated plurality of votes based on an aggregation of the weighted plurality of votes; and adjust the set-point temperature in the zone of the building according to the aggregated plurality of votes and according to occupancy times of the zone of the building, and by controlling the HVAC system to provide the adjusted set-point temperature. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification