A moisture sensing system for a refrigerant flow of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system includes a moisture sensor including a color change material sample located in a refrigerant flow of the HVAC system. The color change material sample configured to change color as an indication of a moisture level of the refrigerant flow. A color sensor is in optical communication with the moisture sensor and is configured to sense a color of the color change material and communicate the sensed color to an HVAC system controller. A method of operating an HVAC system includes exposing a condensing a color change material sample to a flow of refrigerant and sensing a color of the color change material via a color sensor. The color is indicative of a moisture level of the flow of refrigerant. The sensed color is communicated to an HVAC system controller.

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 method of monitoring performance of a building system to control ambient conditions within the interior of a structure including: detecting a physiological condition of an individual within the interior of the structure; detecting an ambient condition within the interior of the structure; determining a user activity that is assigned to an area within the interior of the structure where the individual is located; and determining a wellness performance score of the area in response to at least the physiological condition, the ambient condition, and the user activity that is assigned to an area within the interior of the structure where the individual is located.

A demand response system includes a mobile application of a mobile device that is configured to initiate altering an operating condition of a network device disposed at a site using location based services. A demand response application interface module is configured to enable access between a utility company and the network device to communicate energy management information therebetween. The network device is configured to be remotely altered by each of the demand response application interface module and the mobile application separately based on the location based services and the energy management information. A method of managing a demand response system includes detecting a user being disposed away from a site, detecting energy management information from a utility company associated with the site, and initiating a reduction in energy use at the site in response to the relative location of the user and the energy management information.

An appliance hub for use in an upper portion of an enclosure can include a substrate configured to be positioned in an upper portion of an enclosure. The appliance hub can include a climate control apparatus mounted on the substrate and the climate control apparatus can be configured to regulate a temperature within the enclosure. The appliance hub can include one or more lighting elements configured to provide light within the enclosure, a plurality of fluid lines connected to the substrate and configured to provide fluid service and return to the climate control apparatus, and/or a plurality of electrical connections connected to the substrate and configured to provide electrical power and/or data to at least one of the climate control apparatus and the one or more lighting elements.

A system that allows a contractor to remotely monitor and/or interact with its customers' building control systems, such as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and analyze information obtained from the building control systems over time. Such a system may help the contractor monitor and diagnosis customer building control systems, setup service calls, achieve better customer relations, create more effective marketing opportunities, as well as other functions. In some cases, the disclosed system may include a controller that analyzes data from HVAC systems, determines a thermal model of a space environmentally controlled by an HVAC system, and provides an energy audit of the space that is environmentally controlled by the HVAC system. The controller may output a result of the energy audit to a user.

A wireless sensor network at a monitored location can be configured to generate sensor channel(s) of data to assess operational conditions at the monitored location. Inputs based on the sensor channel(s) of data are provided to a host system for analysis of a demand to one or more resources at the monitored location. Response messages can be generated based on the demand analysis and transmitted to actuator(s) at the monitored location to effect an adjustment to the operational conditions.

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.

An HVAC controller controlled in response to a natural language audio message that is not recognizable by the HVAC controller as a command, where the natural language audio message is translated into a command recognizable by the HVAC controller. The HVAC controller may be a thermostat and may include a housing that at least partially houses a control module, a microphone, a speaker, a display, and a voice recognition module. The voice recognition module recognizes a predetermined audible trigger from a recorded voice message or streamed voice message, and in response, provide one or more audio clips via the speaker and/or video clips via the display to assist users in operating the thermostat. A user may communicate with the thermostat via the thermostat and/or a remote device.

A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system may be zoned into one or more zone. The HVAC system may include HVAC components, sensors, and one or more register vents that may include vent dampers (e.g., electronically controllable vent dampers or manually operated vent dampers). Opening and closing of the vent dampers may facilitate creating zones or sub-zones in the HVAC system configuration. An HVAC control system may receive a request for conditioned air in one or more of the zones, determine a damper setting for at least one of the vent dampers, communicate the determined damper setting to a vent damper or user interface, determine which HVAC components should be active, if any, and/or provide controls signals to activate or keep active the HVAC components that are determined to be active.