Energy management and home automation system

A system for reducing usage energy in participating facilities containing a heating/cooling unit in response to commands from a utility comprising:

• a controller in each participating facility for storing certain designated heating and cooling set-point temperatures used in controlling the temperature at which said heating/cooling device heats and cools said facility;
• said controller responding to commands provided thereto over a common communications link to effect the control of said heating cooling unit;
• and
• a utility central control center for providing utility commands over said link for causing said controller to lower the heating set-point temperature and to raise the cooling set-point temperature.

A method of energy consumption reduction over a wide area by reducing the energy consumption of selective energy consuming units within participating facilities, said method comprising the steps of:

• coupling each energy consuming unit to a common controller for a facility;
• operating said controller in a manner which enables each device coupled thereto to operate in accordance with a schedule programmed in said controller;
• communicating general commands from a central station to said controller to selectively program said schedule pursuant to the needs of the facility;
• and
• communicating a utility command from a utility company to said controller to cause said controller to selectively disable a subset of said devices for periods of time regardless of the prior communications or subsequent communications from said central station during a defined period of time following said utility command, wherein said step of communicating from said utility company includes disabling said subset of devices for portions of said defined Deriod of time.