System and method for providing modular control and for managing energy consumption

A control system having a plurality of units, comprising:

• said plurality of task units each for overseeing at least one device;
• a central processor coupled to said devices, said central processor comprising:
• a control database unit for storing sets of commands, said control database unit comprising a relational database associating said sets of commands with input signals;
• a command execution unit;
• a monitoring unit for receiving said input signals from the devices and for generating notice signals to the one individual task units associated with said input signals;
• said task units supplying query signals to said control database unit;
• said control database unit providing said sets of commands associated with said input signals to said command execution unit;
• said command execution unit reading address data associated with each command of said sets of commands and routing the commands to the one task units specified by said address data;
• wherein said plurality of task units executes said commands received from said command execution unit;
• and
• a variable database for use in maintaining values of shared variables, said shared variables being retrieved by more than one of said task units and being updated by the more than one of said task units.

A keypad control system, comprising:

• at least one keypad for generating a keypad signal upon an occurrence of a keypad entry;
• a command execution unit;
• a control database unit for storing commands in a relational database according to keypad signals;
• a keypad task unit for overseeing said keypad;
• a second task unit for overseeing a device;
• a monitoring unit for supplying a notice signal to said keypad task unit after receipt of said keypad signal from said keypad;
• said keypad task unit, in response to said notice signal, supplying a query signal to said control database unit requesting a set of commands associated with said keypad entry;
• said control database unit, in response to said query signal, notifying said command execution unit of the set of commands associated with said keypad entry;
• said command execution unit for routing at least one command in the set to said second task unit;
• wherein said second task unit controls said second device in response to the one command and, consequently, in response to the keypad entry.

A control method, comprising the steps of:

• storing sets of commands in a relational database according to at least one input/output event;
• receiving a first input/output event and retrieving a set of commands associated with said first input/output event;
• routing each command in said set of commands to a task unit assigned to each command;
• processing each command at the task unit assigned to each command;
• and
• querying a variable database unit for a value of a variable, the variable database unit comprising a relational database.

A method of interfacing with a first building control apparatus using a control database, a variable database and an executing unit comprising:

• detecting an event;
• searching the control database for one or more commands associated with the event and the first building control apparatus;
• retrieving at least one variable from the variable database if the one or more commands require the at least one variable;
• returning a pointer that references the one or more commands;
• and
• executing the one or more commands via the executing unit by using the pointer to access the one or more commands.

A system for controlling a plurality of different device types in a building, comprising:

• a command execution unit;
• a control database that stores a plurality of commands associates with both a command execution unit and a plurality of task units;
• a variable database that stores variables associated with a sub-plurality of commands;
• wherein a search of the control database is executed in response to an event and a pointer to a set of commands stored in the control database is returned to the command execution unit;
• and
• wherein at least one variable is retrieved from the variable database if the set of commands includes any commands from the sub-plurality of commands.