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US 2014/0228983 A1Published application
HVAC Customer Support System
OwnerMark Eldo Groskreutz, Richard Lee Jamesoninventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An HVAC thermostat has a processor configured to control at least one component of an HVAC system in response to temperature and at least one of (1) receive voice over internet protocol (VOIP) data and (2) transmit VOIP data.
Claims22
A heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) thermostat, comprising:
- a processor configured to:
- control at least one component of an HVAC system in response to temperature;
- and
- at least one of (1) receive voice over internet protocol (VOIP) data and (2) transmit VOIP data.
1 more element
A method of operating a thermostat, comprising:
- controlling, in response to a signal from at least one climate sensor attached to a thermostat, a heating, ventilation, and air/or conditioning (HVAC) component;
- transmitting voice information from the thermostat using voice over internet protocol (VOIP);
- and
- receiving voice information using VOIP, and outputting the received voice information via a speaker.
1 more element
A device, comprising:
- a microphone;
- a speaker;
- an input;
- a network interface;
- and
- a processor system configured to:
- store product information regarding the device as a whole;
- receive a customer service command from the input to initiate a customer service call regarding the device;
- transmit the service information via the network interface in response to the customer service command;
- transmit, in response to the customer service command, first voice information input by the microphone to a remote service center via the network interface using voice over internet protocol (VOIP);
- and
- receive second voice information from the remote service center via the network interface using VOIP, and output the second voice information via the speaker.
9 more elements
A method of operating a customer service center, comprising:
- receiving diagnostic data generated by a heating, ventilation, and air/or conditioning (HVAC) controller associated with a first HVAC system component;
- and
- receiving voice over internet protocol (VOIP) data from the HVAC controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.