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US 11,867,420 B2Granted
Backup control for HVAC system with headless thermostat
AssigneeJohnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
InventorsVineet Sinha, Yingchun Xu, Patrick W. Mulcahy, August Lu, Bing Mao, Karl F. Reichenberger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method in a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system includes retrieving a control input from a remote computing system via a cellular network responsive to determining that a connection to a local wireless network cannot be established and generating a control signal for HVAC equipment based on the control input or generating a control signal for HVAC equipment by executing a backup control algorithm responsive to determining that a connection to a local wireless network cannot be established.
Claims29
A method of operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system, the method comprising:
- retrieving a control decision from a remote computing system via a first network responsive to determining that a connection to a thermostat via a local wireless network cannot be established, wherein the control decision is based on a setpoint provided via a user device to the thermostat via a local wireless connection using the local wireless network and to the remote computing system via the first network, the control decision determined by the remote computing system performing a control algorithm that outputs the control decision based on the set point;
- generating a control signal for HVAC equipment based on the control decision;
- and
- providing the control signal to the HVAC equipment to affect operation of the HVAC equipment, wherein the HVAC equipment comprises an adapter unit;
- wherein determining that the connection to the local wireless network cannot be established comprises determining that a wireless connection between the adapter unit and the thermostat cannot be established, and
- wherein the thermostat is a headless thermostat device structured without a display and without any mechanism for manually receiving control inputs from a user.
3 more elements
A device for use in a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system, the device comprising:
- one or more circuits configured to:
- retrieve a control decision from a remote computing system via a first network responsive to determining that a connection to a thermostat via a local wireless network cannot be established, wherein the control decision is based on a setpoint provided via a user device to the thermostat via a local wireless connection using the local wireless network and to the remote computing system via the first network, the control decision determined by the remote computing system performing a control algorithm that outputs the control decision based on the setpoint;
- generate a control signal for HVACequipment based on the control decision;
- and
- provide the control signal to the HVAC equipment to affect operation of the HVAC equipment, wherein the device comprises an adapter unit coupled to the HVACequipment;
- wherein determining that the connection to the local wireless network cannot be established comprises determining that a wireless connection between the adapter unit and the thermostat cannot be established, and
- wherein the thermostat is a headless thermostat device structured without a display and without any mechanism for manually receiving control inputs from a user.
4 more elements
A method of operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system, the method comprising:
- generating a control signal for HVAC equipment by executing a backup control algorithm responsive to determining that a connection to a local wireless network cannot be established, wherein the control signal is based on a setpoint provided via a user device to a headless thermostat device via a local wireless connection using the local wireless network and received via a first network, and the backup control algorithm uses historical data associated with the HVAC equipment to determine the control signal by estimating an indoor temperature ata particular point in time that results from operating the HVAC equipment for a particular length of time with one or more particular operating settings to control the indoor temperature indicated by the historical data and generating the control signal with the indoor temperature and the setpoint;
- and
- providing the control signal to the HVACequipment to affect operation of the HVAC equipment, wherein the HVAC equipment comprises an adapter unit;
- wherein determining that the connection to the local wireless network cannot be established comprises determining that a wireless connection between the adapter unit and a headless thermostat device cannot be established, and
- wherein the headless thermostat device is structured without a display and without any mechanism for manually receiving control inputs from a user.
2 more elements
A device in a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system, the device comprising:
- one or more circuits configured to:
- generate a control signal for HVAC equipment by executing a backup control algorithm responsive to determining that a connection to a local wireless network cannot be established, wherein the control signal is based on a setpoint provided via a user device to a headless thermostat device via a local wireless connection using the local wireless network and received via a first network, and the backup control algorithm uses historical data associated with the HVAC equipment to determine the control signal by estimating an indoor temperature ata particular point in time that results from operating the HVAC equipment for a particular length of time with one or more particular operating settings to control the indoor temperature indicated by the historical data and generating the control signal with the indoor temperature and the setpoint;
- and
- provide the control signal to the HVAC equipment to affect operation of the HVAC equipment, wherein the HVAC equipment comprises an adapter unit;
- wherein determining that the connection to the local wireless network cannot be established comprises determining that a wireless connection between the adapter unit and a headless thermostat device cannot be established, and
- wherein the headless thermostat device is structured without a display and without any mechanism for manually receiving control inputs from a user.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.