An indoor unit for an air-conditioning apparatus includes an air-sending unit configured to send air subjected to heat exchange with refrigerant to an air-conditioning target space through an air outlet, the air-conditioning target space being divided into a plurality of areas, an up-and-down airflow direction adjuster configured to adjust an angle in an up-and-down direction of a blowing direction of the air sent through the air outlet, a right-and-left airflow direction adjuster configured to adjust an angle in a right-and-left direction of the blowing direction of the air sent through the air outlet, and a controller configured to control the angle of the up-and-down airflow direction adjuster and the angle of the right-and-left airflow direction adjuster. The controller is configured to control the up-and-down airflow direction adjuster and the right-and-left airflow direction adjuster to continuously change the angle in the up-and-down direction and the angle in the right-and-left direction.

Disclosed are methods and functional elements for enhanced thermal management of predominantly enclosed spaces. In particular, the invention enables the construction of buildings with reduced power requirements for heating and/or air-conditioning systems since under certain conditions less energy for heating or cooling is required to maintain, within certain boundaries, desirable temperatures inside such buildings, habitats, or other enclosed spaces.

In some instances the invention is in part based on dynamically changing functional elements with variable properties, or effective properties, in terms of their electromagnetic radiative behavior and/or their thermal energy storage properties, or the spatial distribution of the stored thermal energy, which permits the application of methods and algorithms to control the overall thermal behavior of the entire structure in such a way that desired levels of inside temperature can be reached with reduced consumption of external energy (typically electricity, gas, oil, or coal).

In some instances no conventional heating of cooling is required at all, whereas in other instances the expenditure of external energy for conventional heating or cooling is reduced. In some instances the invention enables the reduction of the time to reach desired temperatures inside such buildings, habitats, or other predominantly enclosed spaces.

Systems and methods for improving operation of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, which includes a scrubber unit coupled to an air handling unit via a return air conduit. The scrubber unit includes a contaminant filter, which sorbs air contaminants from a surrounding environment when at a target pressure differential and releases previously sorbed air contaminants into the surrounding environment when at target temperature, a return inlet actuator coupled to a return inlet damper, and scrubber control circuitry programmed to determine parameters of outside air and instruct the return inlet actuator to ramp the return inlet damper from a closed position to an open position during a bleed phase of a regeneration cycle to enable venting of the previously sorbed air contaminants using return air when the parameters of the outside air are not within corresponding target parameter ranges.

System and methods for improving implementation of a scrubber unit in a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. The scrubber unit includes a housing that house a plurality of filter cartridges, which each includes a chemical compound that facilitates sorbing air contaminants. The housing includes a first sidewall and a second sidewall. The scrubber unit includes an internal wall enclosed within the housing, a cross-member coupled between the first sidewall and the second sidewall perpendicular to the internal wall, and a contaminant filter that includes the plurality of filter cartridges coupled between a top cartridge deck and a bottom cartridge deck, in which the bottom cartridge deck is coupled to the cross-member when the contaminant filter is completely enclosed within the housing to facilitate reducing likelihood of the bottom cartridge deck deforming under weight of the plurality of filter cartridges.

A system is disclosed and includes an air-conditioning load prediction unit for predicting a load of an air-conditioning unit in a future time period based on past data; an indoor temperature and humidity sensing module for sensing temperature and humidity of a building at a first time; a fan-speed sensing module for sensing a fan-speed of the air-conditioning unit at the first time; and a comfort-degree prediction module for calculating a comfort-degree that the air-conditioning unit is required to reach at a second time based on the sensed temperature, sensed humidity and sensed fan-speed; an energy management unit for controlling a central monitoring computer to set a temperature and an fan-speed of the air conditioning unit, and compare the predicted load and an actual load of the air conditioning unit for adjusting the set temperature and the set fan-speed in real time. A method of adjusting is also provided.

A system including at least one computerized device with voice command capability processed remotely includes a low power processor, executing a loose algorithmic model to recognize a wake word prefix in a voice command, the loose model having a low false rejection rate but suffering a high false acceptance rate, and a second processor which can operate in at least a low power/low clock rate mode and a high power/high clock rate mode. When the first processor determines the presence of the wake word, it causes the second processor to switch to the high power/high clock rate mode and to execute a tight algorithmic model to verify the presence of the wake word. By using the two processors in this manner, the average overall power required by the computerized device is reduced, as is the amount of waste heat generated by the system.

A heat source system managing device includes: a predicted heat demand upper limit calculating unit configured to calculate a predicted heat demand upper limit by adding a prediction error to a predicted heat demand value for a heat source system; an operation plan preparing unit configured to prepare an operation plan of the heat source system to supply heat of the predicted heat demand upper limit to a consuming facility; a surplus stored heat quantity calculating unit configured to repeatedly perform a process of calculating a surplus stored heat quantity by subtracting a heat quantity consumed by the consuming facility from the predicted heat demand upper limit; and an operation plan changing unit configured to sequentially change the operation plan by decreasing a future operation rate of a refrigerator to cancel the surplus stored heat quantity.

A building HVAC system includes an airside system having a plurality of airside subsystems, a high-level controller, and a plurality of low-level airside controllers. Each airside subsystem includes airside HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces. The high-level controller is configured to generate a plurality of airside subsystem energy targets, each airside subsystem energy target corresponding to one of the plurality of airside subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding airside subsystem. Each low-level airside controller corresponds to one of the airside subsystems and is configured to control the airside HVAC equipment of the corresponding airside subsystem in accordance with the airside subsystem energy target for the corresponding airside subsystem.

A smart ventilation system which performs the ventilation of indoors, increases the air quality in closed spaces and maintains air quality, which is positioned over a window and includes: a ventilation module on a main body, which is attached to the window so as to control the air passage between indoors and outdoors; indoor and outdoor sensor groups which measure the air values indoors and outdoors, respectively; and an electronic card which analyzes the sensor values and engages one or more of an air intake fan group, an air outlet fan group, a dehumidifier, and a humidifier as a result of the analysis. A device provides the necessary energy from the adaptor and water reservoir.

Systems and methods to facilitate controlling operation of a scrubber unit implemented in a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. The scrubber unit includes a scrubber housing, which encloses a contaminant filter; and a control panel coupled in a sidewall of the scrubber housing. The control panel includes a controller module, which includes a first module housing that encloses scrubber control circuitry and a first plurality of input/output ports. The scrubber control circuitry communicates with first equipment in the scrubber unit via the first plurality of input/output ports. The control panel includes an input/output module, which includes a second module housing that encloses a second plurality of input/output ports; and a communication bus coupled between the controller module and the input/output module that enables the scrubber control circuitry to communicate with second equipment in the scrubber unit via the second plurality of input/output ports.