Methods and devices for controlling a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system by a thermostat are provided. Input can be received from a user via a thermostat, the input being indicative of an adjustment of an HVAC-related setting. On a real-time basis, the HVAC-related setting that is being adjusted can be compared against a feedback criterion designed to indicate a circumstance under which feedback is to be presented to the user. The circumstance can be indicative of an achievement of a HVAC-related setting of a predetermined responsibility level with respect to an energy usage of the HVAC system. Upon a real-time determination that the feedback criterion is satisfied, visual feedback can be caused to be presented to the user in real-time. The real-time feedback can include a visual icon having a visual appeal corresponding to a desirability of the satisfaction of the feedback criterion.

An outside-air processing device includes a main body having a return-air introducing port for introducing return air from a room and a supply-air outlet port for blowing out supply air into the room, a total heat exchanger arranged in the main body and configured to exchange heat between outdoor air and the return air, and to blow out the heat-exchanged outdoor air from the supply-air outlet port as the supply air, and an opening-closing unit configured to open and close a bypass path formed in the main body to bypass between the return-air introducing port and the supply-air outlet port.

A sensor control method that is executed by an air-conditioning apparatus includes: acquiring a first thermal image by scanning an air-conditioned space using the infrared sensor in accordance with a first scanning scheme, the air-conditioning apparatus being placed in the air-conditioned space; extracting a subject thermal image from the first thermal image, based on a difference between a background thermal image of the air-conditioned space when no subject is present therein and the first thermal image; determining a second scanning scheme different from the first scanning scheme, when the subject thermal image has a size smaller than a threshold size; and acquiring a second thermal image by scanning an area corresponding to the subject thermal image of the air-conditioned space using the infrared sensor in accordance with the determined second scanning scheme.

A multi-function thermostat for a building includes a sensor configured to measure an environmental condition of a building space, a communication interface, and a processing circuit. The communications interface is configured to communicate with an emergency server and receive occupant health data from a health sensor configured to monitor an occupant. The processing circuit is configured to determine a health metric associated with the occupant based on the occupant health data and cause the communications interface to send a distress message to the emergency server when the health metric associated with the occupant indicates a medical emergency.

A system and method to determine building thermal performance parameters through empirical testing is described. The parameters can be formulaically applied to determine fuel consumption and indoor temperatures. To generalize the approach, the term used to represent furnace rating is replaced with HVAC system rating. As total heat change is based on the building's thermal mass, heat change is relabeled as thermal mass gain (or loss). This change creates a heat balance equation that is composed of heat gain (loss) from six sources, three of which contribute to heat gain only. No modifications are required for apply the empirical tests to summer since an attic's thermal conductivity cancels out and the attic's effective window area is directly combined with the existing effective window area. Since these tests are empirically based, the tests already account for the additional heat gain associated with the elevated attic temperature and other surface temperatures.

An air-conditioning remote controller for operating an air-conditioning apparatus is provided. The air-conditioning remote controller includes a display unit, an image acquisition processing unit, and a display processing unit. The display unit displays various information. The image acquisition processing unit acquires image data from an external communication terminal. The display processing unit displays, on the display unit, a settings management screen used for operating the air-conditioning apparatus, and the image data acquired by the image acquisition processing unit from the communication terminal.

A system and method configured with an electronic device to enable prediction-based power management by providing direct transition to a lower power state such that overall energy consumption is reduced. The system and method includes an idleness information recording module configured to, using a power management agent, non-intrusively observe and record usage and idleness information of the electronic device, a learning module configured to, using a neural network operatively coupled with the power management agent, conduct deep learning of idleness patterns of the electronic device, a prediction module configured to predict future idleness of the electronic device based on the deep learning of the idleness patterns, and a prediction-based lower power state transfer module configured to directly transition the electronic device to lower power state based on the predicted future idleness.

A temperature control device (e.g., a thermostat) may be configured to control an internal heat-generating electrical load so as to accurately measure a present temperature in a space around the temperature control device. The temperature control device may comprise a temperature sensing circuit configured to generate a temperature control signal indicating the present temperature in the space, and a control circuit configured to receive the temperature control signal and to control the internal electrical load. The control circuit may be configured to energize the internal electrical load in an awake state and to cause the internal electrical load to consume less power in an idle state. The control circuit may be configured to control the internal electrical load to a first energy level (e.g., a first intensity) during the awake state and to a second energy level (e.g., second intensity) that is less than the first during the idle state.

A thermostat for a building space includes a network communication module and a processing circuit. The network communication module is communicatively coupled to at least one of one or more social media servers and one or more calendar servers. The processing circuit is configured to receive at least one of social media activity, social media events, and calendar events associated with a user via the network communication module. The processing circuit is further configured to determine an expected occupancy of the building based on at least one of the social media events and the calendar events. The processing circuit is further configured to adjust a setpoint of the thermostat based on at least one of the expected occupancy and the social media activity.

Techniques are described for providing remote device (e.g., thermostat, lighting, appliance, etc.) control and/or energy monitoring. A system monitors sensor data captured by one or more sensors that sense attributes relevant to user presence at one or more monitored properties and status of one or more energy consuming devices associated with the one or more monitored properties. The system analyzes the monitored sensor data and the monitored device status with respect to a set of one or more rules and performs an operation related to controlling the one or more energy consuming devices based on the analysis of the monitored sensor data and the monitored device status with respect to the set of one or more rules.