A building monitoring system, wherein the system comprises an HVAC monitor, which comprised a condensing unit connector, an air handler connector, a thermostat connector and a control module, a wetness detector; and a communicator. The communicator accesses a location of the building monitoring system and selectively communicates with a technician based at least in part on the location. A monitor system for use with an existing HVAC unit, wherein the HVAC unit has a condenser or furnace, an air handler, and a thermostat, the HVAC monitor system comprising at least one condenser or furnace sensor, at least one air handler sensor and at least one control module. A wetness monitor system, comprising at least one wetness detector connected to a control, wherein the control is also connected to a network and the network is connected to a flow shutoff valve. A method of monitoring a location for wetness comprising detecting wetness through at least one wetness detector, monitoring the state of a shutoff valve.

The invention provides a heat transfer system and a method for operating a heat transfer system in which a heat transfer fluid comprising or consisting of a phase change material (PCM) circulates in a cooling circuit. A combined state of phase value of the heat transfer fluid is determined based on information obtained from a sensor system including a temperature sensor and an electrical resistance sensor realized as two separate sensors or as one combined temperature-and-electrical-resistance sensor. The system and method can securely and effectively prevent a possible blocking of the channels of an indoor heat exchanger of the system by solidified PCM and an unwanted deposition of solid PCM (crystals) on heat transfer surfaces of the indoor heat exchanger.

A building HVAC control system is provided, including at least one wireless mesh network. The wireless mesh network includes a plurality of wireless mesh nodes, the wireless mesh nodes include: at least one sensing node, configured to communicate with sensors installed in a building and obtain measured environment data collected by the sensors; at least one control node, configured to communicate with HVAC equipment, and send control commands to the HVAC equipment; at least one router node, configured to transmit data between the wireless mesh nodes, and transmit data between the wireless mesh nodes and the router. The wireless mesh nodes can perform device-to-device communications by transmitting and receiving wireless signals through the mesh without passing through the server, thereby enabling efficient, multi-node control loops that add no additional computational load to the server while increasing the safety of data transmission and the overall reliability of the HVAC control system.

A heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system includes a first control unit and a second control unit. The first control unit is communicatively coupled to a first plurality of HVAC units, a first interactive display, and a first plurality of wireless sensors using a Wi-Fi direct protocol. The second control unit is communicatively coupled to a second plurality of HVAC units, a second interactive display, and a second plurality of wireless sensors over a Wi-Fi network. The first control unit is operable to connect to the second control unit using the Wi-Fi direct protocol. Upon connecting to the second control unit, the first control unit switches communications with the first plurality of HVAC units, the first interactive display, and the first plurality of wireless sensors from the Wi-Fi direct protocol to the Wi-Fi network.

A space conditioning system and method for monitoring electrical parameters and/or thermodynamic parameters relating to the heat of extraction/rejection or power consumption of the system and to communicate the monitored parameters to an external device.

An air-conditioning apparatus includes a control unit performing liquid refrigerant equalization control for correcting an imbalance in liquid refrigerant amount between accumulators. The control unit includes a first liquid refrigerant equalization control unit controlling an output of a fan to perform the liquid refrigerant equalization control and a second liquid refrigerant equalization control unit controlling a frequency of a compressor to perform the liquid refrigerant equalization control. The second liquid refrigerant equalization control unit determines an increase or reduction in frequency of the compressor so that a total refrigerant circulation amount is not below a predetermined amount. When a value is within a predefined acceptable range, the control unit selects the first liquid refrigerant equalization control unit to perform the liquid refrigerant equalization control. When the value is outside the acceptable range, the control unit selects the second liquid refrigerant equalization control unit to perform the liquid refrigerant equalization control.

A thermostatic radiator valve supports a display that is configurable to display TRV information for a desired viewing direction to facilitate reading by a user, where the TRV comprises a configurable electronic display, a configuration circuit, and a processing device. The configuration circuit is capable of detecting when the TRV has been installed, determining a desired display orientation from a plurality of orientations with respect to a designated surface via a sensor in response to the detecting, and generating a display indicator indicative of the desired display orientation. The processing device is capable of receiving the display indicator and configuring the configurable electronic display to display the TRV information in the desired display orientation.

A method for HVAC workload and cost logic is described. In one embodiment, the method includes detecting a thermostat of an HVAC system being set to a target temperature and upon detecting the thermostat being set to the target temperature, detecting a current indoor condition and a current outdoor condition. In some embodiments, the method includes calculating an estimated runtime of an HVAC heating or cooling cycle for the target temperature. The estimated runtime is based on the target temperature, the current indoor and outdoor conditions, and on a result of querying a correlation database. The correlation database includes data points for a plurality of previous HVAC heating and cooling cycles.

The invention involves the automated testing of HVAC units using an energy management system. The automated HVAC test is performed to understand if one or more HVAC units are operational across one or more locations. If an HVAC unit is not operational, HVAC testing could be performed to understand which component or stage of the HVAC unit is not working as designed. The automated HVAC test is also used to calculate the efficiency of the HVAC unit(s) being tested. The various HVAC tests are performed on all HVAC units as a form of preventative maintenance and diagnostics. These tests can be scheduled on-demand, for a future date and time, or on a recurring schedule (monthly or quarterly). A report is generated for each HVAC test and can be viewed and exported from a cloud-based energy management platform.

An apparatus and method for measuring or controlling the Outdoor Air Fraction (OAF) ratio through economizer or outdoor air dampers and cabinet to total system airflow and mixed-air humidity ratio and wetbulb temperature for HVAC equipment. An OAF exceeding the minimum regulatory requirements wastes energy and contributes to global warming. OAF is used to optimize economizer damper position either manually or automatically using an economizer Fault Detection Diagnostic controller and actuator to meet minimum outdoor airflow requirements. After the outdoor air damper position is optimized, the mixed-air humidity ratio and mixed-air wetbulb temperature are determined and used with the measured mixed-air drybulb and supply-air drybulb temperatures to evaluate evaporator airflow, cooling capacity, and heating capacity, and, if necessary, provide a visual or electronically-transmitted error code signal indicating maintenance requirements to check or correct economizer damper position, cabinet leakage, airflow, cooling or heating capacity, and/or other faults for the HVAC system.