Prospective determination of processor wake-up conditions in energy buffered HVAC control unit having a preconditioning feature

A method of reducing an amount of power used by a thermostat, the method comprising:

• providing one or more processors in operative communication with a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, the one or more processors having a preconditioning function associated with a stored setpoint temperature, the one or more processors including a processor, the processor having a first operating state and a second operating state, wherein the processor consumes more power in the second operating state than in the first operating state;
• determining a set of wake-up conditions for the preconditioning function upon which said processor is to enter into said second operating state from said first operating state, said set of wake-up conditions including at least one threshold value associated with at least one environmental condition and/or at least one time-of-day;
• causing the set of wake-up conditions for the preconditioning function to be stored in a memory;
• operating the one or more processors in a first mode in which said processor is in said first operating state during a time interval subsequent to said causing the set of wake-up conditions for the preconditioning function to be stored in said memory;
• determining, while said processor is in said first operating state, whether at least one of the set of wake-up conditions for the preconditioning function to be met;
• and
• operating the one or more processors in a second mode in which said processor is in said second operating state upon a determination that the at least one of the set of wake-up conditions for the preconditioning function has been met, the one or more processors being configured to control the HVAC system according to the preconditioning function while operating in the second operating state.

A smart-home control system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors comprise a first processor and a second processor, wherein:
• the first processor is programmed to:
• determine a wake-up threshold for determining when the first processor should transition from a low-power state to a high-power state, wherein the wake-up threshold comprises a threshold value associated with an environmental condition and/or a time-of-day;
• send the wake-up threshold to the second processor;
• and
• transition from the high-power state to the low-power state after the wake-up threshold is sent to the second processor;
• and
• the second processor is programmed to:
• receive an environmental measurement;
• determine whether the environmental measurement violates the wake-up threshold;
• and
• cause the first processor to transition from the low-power state to the high-power state if the environmental measurement violates the wake-up threshold.