US 10,767,883 B2Granted

Smart thermostat orchestration

AssigneeEncycle Corporation

InventorsPeter Bryan Malcolm, Mark Howard Kerbel, Paul Stidworthy

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Systems and methods for orchestrating the operation of energy-consuming loads, so as to minimize power consumption, are described. In some embodiments, the loads can be HVAC, refrigeration systems, air compressors, and the like, and orchestration is effected either directly or by means of the loads' respective controllers. In some aspects, the controllers can be Smart Thermostats and orchestration is effected through a Cloud-based orchestration platform or “COP.” In certain aspects, a COP uses specifically programmed application programming interfaces, or APIs, to control the operation of a single manufacturer's Smart Thermostats, where the manufacturer provides its own Cloud-based control platform, through which the COP operates. The COP can similarly orchestrate the operation of two or more manufacturers' Smart Thermostats through their respective Cloud-based control platforms. By these and other means, the operation of a variety of energy-consuming loads can be more easily and efficiently orchestrated.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A computer readable medium containing program instructions for managing a plurality of energy consuming electrical loads, wherein the loads can be enabled or disabled during periodic time segments, wherein a control thermostat is associated with each of the loads, and wherein execution of the program instructions by one or more processors of a computer system causes the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

(a) collecting and storing load state data for each of the plurality of energy consuming electrical loads;
(b) prioritizing each load of the plurality of loads according to their respective needs, wherein need is a metric indicative of the extent to which a desired goal associated with the load has not been met;
(c) summing the respective average power levels of each load of the plurality of loads during a preceding one or more enabled time segments to obtain an aggregate peak demand power level for the loads;
(d) enabling a selected load of the plurality of loads if its average power level will not cause the aggregate peak demand power level to exceed a target maximum aggregate peak demand power level if all loads with higher priorities are enabled;
and
(e) repeating (d) for each load in the plurality of loads;
wherein need is indicative of one or more of a group consisting of whether a calling status of each of the control thermostats is calling, a time elapsed since the call state changed to calling, a difference between an ambient room temperature measured by the thermostats and a set point temperature of the thermostats, a time period for which the ambient room temperature has deviated from the set point temperature, an amount of time it would take the ambient room temperature to reach the set point temperature, and a load enabled utilization value of each load of the plurality of loads, and combinations thereof;
and
wherein the desired goal is one or more of a group consisting of the calling status of the thermostats, the set point temperature of the thermostats, and a target load enabled utilization value, and combinations thereof.

6 more elements

A computer readable medium containing program instructions for managing a plurality of energy consuming electrical loads, wherein load states of the loads are either enabled or disabled during periodic time segments, wherein a control thermostat is also associated with each of the loads, and wherein execution of the program instructions by one or more processors of a computer system causes the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

(a) periodically collecting and storing during each time segment the load state, an enablement state, and a control thermostat calling status for each load;
(b) identifying control thermostats for which their status is calling and for which the load state of their respective loads is disabled;
(c) identifying control thermostats for which their status is not calling and for which their respective loads are enabled, and prioritizing those loads according to their respective needs, wherein need is a metric indicative of the extent to which the desired goal associated with a load has not been met;
and
(d) disabling the load associated with the control thermostat identified in (c) having the lowest priority if it will allow a load associated with the control thermostat identified in (b) to be enabled without exceeding a predetermined maximum aggregate peak demand power level and, if allowed, enabling the respective loads of the control thermostat identified in (b);
wherein need is indicative of one or more of a group consisting of whether the calling status of each of the control thermostats is calling, a time elapsed since the call state changed to calling, a difference between an ambient room temperature measured by the thermostats and a set point temperature of the thermostats, a time period for which the ambient room temperature has deviated from the set point temperature, an amount of time it would take the ambient room temperature to reach the set point temperature, and a load enabled utilization value of each load of the plurality of loads, and combinations thereof;
and
wherein the desired goal is one or more of a group consisting of the calling status of the thermostats, the set point temperature of the thermostats, and a target load enabled utilization value, and combinations thereof.

5 more elements

A system for managing a plurality of energy consuming electrical loads, comprising:

one or more command servers configured to communicate with one or more cloud service servers, each of the cloud service servers configured to control one or more of a plurality of energy consuming electrical loads via a control thermostat associated with each of the loads;
wherein each load of the plurality of loads is either enabled or disabled during periodic time segments;
wherein the one or more command servers have a computer readable medium containing program instructions, and wherein execution of the program instructions by one or more processors of the one or more command servers causes the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:
(a) collecting and storing load state data for each of the plurality of energy consuming electrical loads;
(b) prioritizing each load of the plurality of loads according to their respective needs, wherein need is a metric indicative of the extent to which a desired goal associated with the load has not been met;
(c) summing the respective average power levels of each load of the plurality of loads during a preceding one or more enabled time segments to obtain an aggregate peak demand power level for the loads;
(d) enabling a selected load of the plurality of loads if its average power level will not cause the aggregate peak demand power level to exceed a target maximum aggregate peak demand power level if all loads with higher priorities are enabled;
and
(e) repeating (d) for each load in the plurality of loads;
wherein need is indicative of one or more of a group consisting of whether a calling status of each of the control thermostats is calling, a time elapsed since the call state changed to calling, a difference between an ambient room temperature measured by the thermostats and a set point temperature of the thermostats, a time period for which the ambient room temperature has deviated from the set point temperature, an amount of time it would take the ambient room temperature to reach the set point temperature, and a load enabled utilization value of each load of the plurality of loads, and combinations thereof;
and
wherein the desired goal is one or more of a group consisting of the calling status of the thermostats, the set point temperature of the thermostats, and a target load enabled utilization value, and combinations thereof.

9 more elements

A system for managing a plurality of energy consuming electrical loads, comprising:

one or more command servers configured to communicate with one or more cloud service servers, each of the cloud service servers configured to control one or more of a plurality of energy consuming electrical loads via a control thermostat associated with each of the loads;
wherein a load state of each load of the plurality of loads is either enabled or disabled during periodic time segments;
wherein the one or more command servers have a computer readable medium containing program instructions, and wherein execution of the program instructions by one or more processors of the one or more command servers causes the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:
(a) periodically collecting and storing during each time segment the load state, an enablement state, and a control thermostat calling status for each load;
(b) identifying control thermostats for which their status is calling and for which the load state of their respective loads is disabled;
(c) identifying control thermostats for which their status is not calling and for which their respective loads are enabled, and prioritizing those loads according to their respective needs, wherein need is a metric indicative of the extent to which the desired goal associated with a load has not been met;
and
(d) disabling the load associated with the control thermostat identified in (c) having the lowest priority if it will allow a load associated with the control thermostat identified in (b) to be enabled without exceeding a predetermined maximum aggregate peak demand power level and, if allowed, enabling the respective loads of the control thermostat identified in (b);
wherein need is indicative of one or more of a group consisting of whether the calling status of each of the control thermostats is calling, a time elapsed since the call state changed to calling, a difference between an ambient room temperature measured by the thermostats and a set point temperature of the thermostats, a time period for which the ambient room temperature has deviated from the set point temperature, an amount of time it would take the ambient room temperature to reach the set point temperature, and a load enabled utilization value of each load of the plurality of loads, and combinations thereof;
and
wherein the desired goal is one or more of a group consisting of the calling status of the thermostats, the set point temperature of the thermostats, and a target load enabled utilization value, and combinations thereof.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/789,253Filed 12 Feb 2020 · continuation
Priority: 8 Dec 2014
Published: US 2020/0182501 A111 Jun 2020
Granted: 8 Sep 2020
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification36 codes

F24F 11/46
For purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring: improving electric energy efficiency or saving
F24F 11/52
Characterised by user interfaces or communication: indication arrangements, e.g. displays
F24F 11/54
Characterised by user interfaces or communication: using one central controller connected to several sub-controllers
F24F 11/58
Remote control: using Internet communication

Family

Application62/089,117Us provisional application · filed 8 Dec 2014
Application14/814,294Parent of this continuation · filed 30 Jul 2015
US 2020/0182501 A1Pre-grant publication · published 11 Jun 2020
US 10,605,474 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2018/0252428 A1Published application
US 10,767,883 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key