Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120248210 | POWER MANAGEMENT IN ENERGY BUFFERED BUILDING CONTROL UNIT - A thermostat includes a plurality of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) wire connectors for receiving a plurality of HVAC control wires corresponding to an HVAC system. The thermostat also includes a thermostat processing and control circuit configured to at least partially control the operation of the HVAC system and a powering circuit coupled to the HVAC wire connectors and configured to provide an electrical load power to the thermostat processing and control circuit. The powering circuit has a power extraction circuit configured to extract electrical power from one or more of the plurality of received HVAC control wires up to a first level of electrical power, a rechargeable battery, and a power control circuit coupled to the power extraction circuit, the rechargeable battery, and the thermostat processing and control circuit. The power control circuit is configured to provide the electrical load power using power from the power extraction circuit and the rechargeable battery. | 10-04-2012 |
20120248211 | THERMOSTAT WITH SELF-CONFIGURING CONNECTIONS TO FACILITATE DO-IT-YOURSELF INSTALLATION - A thermostat is configured for automated compatibility with HVAC systems that are either single-HVAC-transformer systems or dual-HVAC-transformer systems. The compatibility is automated in that a manual jumper installation is not required for adaptation to either single-HVAC-transformer systems or dual-HVAC-transformer systems. The thermostat has a plurality of HVAC wire connectors including a first call relay wire connector, a first power return wire connector, a second call relay wire connector, and a second power return wire connector. The thermostat is configured such that if the first and second external wires have been inserted into the first and second power return wire connectors, respectively, then the first and second power return wire connectors are electrically isolated from each other. Otherwise, the first and second power return wire connectors are electrically shorted together. | 10-04-2012 |
20120261109 | POWER MANAGEMENT IN ENERGY BUFFERED BUILDING CONTROL UNIT - A thermostat includes a plurality of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) wire connectors for receiving a plurality of HVAC control wires corresponding to an HVAC system. The thermostat also includes a thermostat processing and control circuit configured to at least partially control the operation of the HVAC system and a powering circuit coupled to the HVAC wire connectors and configured to provide an electrical load power to the thermostat processing and control circuit. The powering circuit has a power extraction circuit configured to extract electrical power from one or more of the plurality of received HVAC control wires up to a first level of electrical power, a rechargeable battery, and a power control circuit. The power control circuit is configured to provide the electrical load power using power from the power extraction circuit and the rechargeable battery. | 10-18-2012 |
20120273580 | THERMOSTAT WITH SELF-CONFIGURING CONNECTIONS TO FACILITATE DO-IT-YOURSELF INSTALLATION - A thermostat is configured for automated compatibility with HVAC systems that are either single-HVAC-transformer systems or dual-HVAC-transformer systems. The compatibility is automated in that a manual jumper installation is not required for adaptation to either single-HVAC-transformer systems or dual-HVAC-transformer systems. The thermostat has a plurality of HVAC wire connectors including a first call relay wire connector, a first power return wire connector, a second call relay wire connector, and a second power return wire connector. The thermostat is configured such that if the first and second external wires have been inserted into the first and second power return wire connectors, respectively, then the first and second power return wire connectors are electrically isolated from each other. Otherwise, the first and second power return wire connectors are electrically shorted together. | 11-01-2012 |
20130173064 | USER-FRIENDLY, NETWORK CONNECTED LEARNING THERMOSTAT AND RELATED SYSTEMS AND METHODS - A user-friendly, network-connected learning thermostat is described. The thermostat is made up of (1) a wall-mountable backplate that includes a low-power consuming microcontroller used for activities such as polling sensors and switching on and off the HVAC functions, and (2) separable head unit that includes a higher-power consuming microprocessor, color LCD backlit display, user input devices, and wireless communications modules. The thermostat also includes a rechargeable battery and power-stealing circuitry adapted to harvest power from HVAC triggering circuits. By maintaining the microprocessor in a “sleep” state often compared to the lower-power microcontroller, high-power consuming activities, such as learning computations, wireless network communications and interfacing with a user, can be temporarily performed by the microprocessor even though the activities use energy at a greater rate than is available from the power stealing circuitry. | 07-04-2013 |
20130218351 | INSTALLATION OF THERMOSTAT POWERED BY RECHARGEABLE BATTERY - A thermostat is described that includes a rechargeable battery, a graphical user interface and a wireless network communication capabilities. During installation, in cases where the rechargeable battery is below a first threshold, the installation procedure is limited so as to avoid energy intensive installation steps which may not be supported by the low battery level. An example of an installation step that is avoided due to low battery level is set up of wireless communication. According to some embodiments, if the battery level is very low during initial installation, the installation process is halted while the battery is charged. An indication such as a flashing LED may be displayed so as to indicate to the user that the battery is being charged. | 08-22-2013 |
20130221117 | POWER MANAGEMENT IN SINGLE CIRCUIT HVAC SYSTEMS AND IN MULTIPLE CIRCUIT HVAC SYSTEMS - A thermostat includes a plurality of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) wire connectors for receiving a plurality of HVAC control wires corresponding to an HVAC system. The thermostat also includes a thermostat processing and control circuit operative to at least partially control the operation of the HVAC system and a powering circuit coupled to the HVAC wire connectors and configured to provide an electrical load power to the thermostat processing and control circuit. The thermostat includes circuitry and methods for maximizing efficiency of energy harvested from the HVAC system connected to the thermostat, and depending on which system is connected to the thermostat, different power schemes can be implemented in order to obtain power from the HVAC system. | 08-29-2013 |
20140231530 | ACTIVE POWER STEALING - A thermostat and related methods are described for controlling one or more functions, such as heating and cooling in an HVAC. According to some embodiments the thermostat includes a switching circuit for controlling an HVAC function, where closing the switching circuit activates the HVAC function. The thermostat may also include power harvesting circuitry adapted and arranged to harvest power from the HVAC system, where during times when the HVAC function is active the switching circuit opens for a time interval. The power harvesting circuitry may harvest power from the HVAC system during the time interval, and the time interval may be short enough that the HVAC function remains activated without interruption during the time interval. | 08-21-2014 |
20140358295 | POWER MANAGEMENT IN ENERGY BUFFERED BUILDING CONTROL UNIT - A thermostat includes a plurality of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) wire connectors for receiving a plurality of HVAC control wires corresponding to an HVAC system. The thermostat also includes a thermostat processing and control circuit configured to at least partially control the operation of the HVAC system and a powering circuit coupled to the HVAC wire connectors and configured to provide an electrical load power to the thermostat processing and control circuit. The powering circuit has a power extraction circuit configured to extract electrical power from one or more of the plurality of received HVAC control wires up to a first level of electrical power, a rechargeable battery, and a power control circuit. The power control circuit is configured to provide the electrical load power using power from the power extraction circuit and the rechargeable battery. | 12-04-2014 |
20150034729 | THERMOSTAT WITH SELF-CONFIGURING CONNECTIONS TO FACILITATE DO-IT-YOURSELF INSTALLATION - A thermostat compatible with single-HVAC- and dual-HVAC-transformer systems may include a first power return wire connector, a second power return wire connector, and a user-moveable mechanical element that physically blocks wire insertion into the first wire connector when in a first position and physically allows wire insertion into the first wire connector when in a second position. The thermostat may also include a switching circuit that may be in a first configuration when the mechanical element is in the first position, and in a second configuration when the mechanical element is in the second position. The first wire connector may be electrically coupled to the second wire connector in the first configuration, and first wire connector may be electrically isolated from the second wire connector in the second configuration to promote foolproofing against undesired isolation of the first and second wire connectors. | 02-05-2015 |