The present disclosure relates to a thermostat including a control base configured to couple with and support a portable thermostat, wherein the control base is configured to determine a measure of an environmental condition of a local environment of the control base and communication circuitry of the control base configured to communicate the measure to facilitate control of an HVAC system.

Controlling heating and cooling in a conditioned space utilizes a fluid circulating in a thermally conductive structure in fluid connection with a hydronic-to-air heat exchanger and a ground heat exchanger. Air is moved past the hydronic-to-air heat exchanger, the air having fresh air supply and stale air exhaust. Sensors located throughout the conditioned space send data to a controller. User input to the controller sets the desired set point temperature and humidity. Based upon the set point temperature and humidity and sensor data, the controller sends signals to various devices to manipulate the flow of the fluid and the air in order to achieve the desired set point temperature and humidity in the conditioned space. The temperature of the fluid is kept less than the dew point at the hydronic-to-air heat exchanger and the temperature of the fluid is kept greater than the dew point at the thermally conductive structure.

A frequency response optimization system includes a battery configured to store and discharge electric power, a power inverter configured to control an amount of the electric power stored or discharged from the battery at each of a plurality of time steps during a frequency response period, and a frequency response controller. The frequency response controller is configured to receive a regulation signal from an incentive provider, determine statistics of the regulation signal, use the statistics of the regulation signal to generate an optimal frequency response midpoint that achieves a desired change in a state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery while participating in a frequency response program, and use the midpoints to determine optimal battery power setpoints for the power inverter. The power inverter is configured to use the optimal battery power setpoints to control the amount of the electric power stored or discharged from the battery.

The indoor unit includes a plurality of outlet openings. In airflow rotation of the indoor unit, a full blowout mode and a partial blowout mode are executed. In the full blowout mode, all the outlet openings blow conditioned air. In the partial blowout mode, the flow of the blowing air of part of the outlet openings are blocked by the air current blocking mechanism, and thus the blowing wind speeds of the remaining outlet openings increases. As a result, an air temperature difference among parts of the indoor space decreases, and the comfort of the indoor space is improved.

An air purifier apparatus, comprising: a housing comprising an air intake opening to an external environment outside the housing; a plant pot disposed downstream of the air intake, configured to hold soil, and being perforated so as to enable contact between at least some air outside the plant pot and at least some of the soil inside the plant pot; an air purification filter disposed downstream of the plant pot; a fan disposed downstream of the air purification filter; an air outlet disposed downstream of the fan and located in a first compartment of the housing; a dehumidifier disposed in a second compartment of the housing separate from the first compartment and configured to extract water from air interacting with the dehumidifier, the second compartment having an air exchange perforation opening to the external environment; a watering system, configured to circulate water located inside the housing to the plant pot.

Disclosed are methods for at least approximating any one or any combination of system targets of a) reducing the average energy expenditure for keeping at least one primary compartment of a building within a desired temperature range by means of active e air conditioning, or b) reducing temperature variations during a typical 24-hour cycle within said at least one primary compartment of said building, or c) reducing one or both of the average temperature or the peak temperature of said at least one primary compartment of said building.

The invention concerns predominantly enclosed spaces, typically buildings, which are at least exposed to directionally and temporally varying levels of solar electromagnetic radiation as well as temporally varying levels of ambient air temperature and ambient air flow velocity and direction. Such a building comprising at least one primary compartment and at least one secondary compartment, and wherein said primary compartment predominantly serves to achieve the primary purpose of the building.

The disclosed methods are furthermore at least in part based on at least one electronic controller, which is able to one or both of a) controlling means to modulate the amount of passive air flow to and from said at least one secondary compartment, and b) controlling means to modulate the amount of actively driven air flow to and from said at least one secondary compartment, and said electronic controller furthermore comprising at least one, at least partially descriptive, analytical and/or, numerical, and/or reduced order model to at least approximately compute, i.e. predict, the thermal behavior of said building, and said controller using said at least partially descriptive model to derive control signals suitable to at least approximate said at least one system target. In some embodiments the disclosed methods are at least partially incorporated in a home automation system, including optionally internet connectivity.

In some embodiments the disclosed methods are at least partially capable of increasing the typical lifetime of some components of buildings and thus reducing resources associated with maintaining at least some buildings functional.

A Thermal Performance Forecast approach is described that can be used to forecast heating and cooling fuel consumption based on changes to user preferences and building-specific parameters that include indoor temperature, building insulation, HVAC system efficiency, and internal gains. A simplified version of the Thermal Performance Forecast approach, called the Approximated Thermal Performance Forecast, provides a single equation that accepts two fundamental input parameters and four ratios that express the relationship between the existing and post-change variables for the building properties to estimate future fuel consumption. The Approximated Thermal Performance Forecast approach marginally sacrifices accuracy for a simplified forecast. In addition, the thermal conductivity, effective window area, and thermal mass of a building can be determined using different combinations of utility consumption, outdoor temperature data, indoor temperature data, internal heating gains data, and HVAC system efficiency as inputs.

In some implementations, a system performs proactive performance tests for an appliance before a time for an operational change in usage of the appliance. Usage data for an appliance associated with a property may be obtained. The obtained usage data indicates past activity of the appliance and present operational status of the appliance. Weather forecast data associated with a location of the property can be obtained. A time for an operational change in usage of the appliance can be predicted based at least on the obtained usage data for the appliance and the obtained weather forecast data. An operation directed to conducting one or more performance tests on the appliance can be performed before the predicted time for the operational change in usage of the appliance. One or more communications related to the one or more performance tests of the appliance can be provided to a client device.

A controller controls a radiative air-conditioning equipment which cools or heats space separated from indoor, space by a radiation panel, with an air conditioner, so as to cool or heat the indoor space by a radiation effect of the radiation panel. A data collection unit collects indoor environment data and panel temperature data from an indoor environment measurement sensor and a radiation panel measurement sensor, respectively. A heat quantity determination unit acquires panel characteristics data and device characteristics data, and determines a time-series pattern of a heat quantity to be processed by the radiative air-conditioning equipment based on the acquired data and the data collected by the data collection unit. An operation instruction unit gives to the air conditioner an instruction for operating the air conditioner according to the time-series pattern determined by the heat quantity determination unit

The present disclosure relates to a thermostat including a control base configured to couple with and support a portable thermostat, wherein the control base is configured to determine a measure of an environmental condition of a local environment of the control base and communication circuitry of the control base configured to communicate the measure to facilitate control of an HVAC system.