The present disclosure relate to a controller system and method for use in storage-style water heating systems that offers significant opportunities for energy saving. The controller system can adjust the water heating system in response to energy demand patterns of user fixtures. The controller system can detect quantity of heated water usage and produce a heated water usage profile. The controller system can determine the quantity or volume of the used heated water without a mechanical flow meter. The controller system can include a cost-effective, accurate, and easy-to-install water temperature sensors that provide measurements of the differentials between water temperatures without direct contact with the water. The water temperature sensors can be cost-effective and easy-to-install sensors that are attached to the water pipes through a strap or other attachment methods.

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for controlling operation of at least one home appliance by executing artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and/or machine learning algorithms in a connected 5G environment for the Internet of things (IoT). The home appliance control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a setting unit for setting one home appliance among a plurality of home appliances as a main home appliance and for setting at least one of the remaining home appliances as a sub-home appliance when a voice command is received from an utterer, and a communication control unit for controlling the main home appliance and the sub-home appliance to communicate with each other using a mutually agreed communication protocol other than a pre-set network communication when a predetermined condition is satisfied.

In one embodiment, an HVAC system includes a first control unit communicatively coupled to a first plurality of HVAC units and a second control unit communicatively coupled to a second plurality of HVAC units. The first control unit may connect to the second control unit using a Wi-Fi direct protocol to create an HVAC control network. The first control unit and second control unit may each detect and connect to a Wi-Fi network comprising a wireless access point. The first and second control units may then communicate concurrently over both the HVAC control network and the Wi-Fi network. The first control unit may detect a user device over the Wi-Fi network, receive a first command from the user device over the Wi-Fi network, and communicate the first command to the second control unit over the Wi-Fi network. The first control unit may detect a communication failure in the Wi-Fi network, communicate with the user device over the HVAC network using the Wi-Fi direct protocol, receive a second command from the user device over the HVAC control network, and transmit the second command to the first plurality of HVAC units.

This method for configuring a home-automation system for a building includes a plurality of communicating elements so as to perform a plurality of home-automation functions and a communication network to which the communicating elements are connected, each communicating element including a network interface possessing a network address and implementing one or more software objects modelling this communicating element in the form of resources of at least three types: input, output and logic unit. The method includes steps of:discovering the various communicating elements of the communication network,mapping, in the communication network, the resources that each communicating element discovered offers,programming the home-automation functions of the home-automation system while taking account of the mapping of the resources in the communication network.

A method of controlling a building system is provided. The method comprising: detecting a first current position of a user device; obtaining a building system list including building systems adjustable at the first current position; obtaining an action request list including action requests transmitted from the user device to the building system on the building system list; generating one or more scenes in response to the action request list and the building system list; selecting a scene; and adjusting one or more of the building systems on the building list in response to the scene.

A barrier operator feature enhancement device is designed to provide one or more features found in modern barrier operator devices and to incorporate those features into a previously installed barrier operator system. To facilitate ease of use, the barrier operator feature enhancement device can communicate with a large variety of barrier operators. Such communication may be wireless or wired, depending on the communication protocol implemented by a particular previously installed barrier operator. To facilitate the ease of installation, the device is designed to configure itself to operate with the communication protocol of the previously installed barrier operator. Once configured to be able to communicate with the previously installed barrier operator, the feature enhancement device works with the barrier operator to provide one or more additional features to enhance the capabilities of the previously installed barrier operator.

A control architecture includes at least one programmable logic controller and at least one cloud computing system. An automation program of the controller includes at least one predefined control module. The cloud computing system is designed to store first data in accordance with a model of input data and second data in accordance with a model of output data. At least one first hardware and/or software entity is designed to publish the first data in the cloud computing system with a view to being read by the programmable logic controller when it executes the predefined control module. At least one second hardware and/or software entity is designed to read the second data published in the cloud computing system by the programmable logic controller when it executes the predefined control module.

A thermostat system comprises a thermostat located on the inside of the building, comprising (i) a screen display, (ii) a control input for receiving thermostat programming information, and (iii) interface circuitry for coupling to an environmental system comprising one or more items of equipment selected from the group heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment. A doorbell is located on the outside of said building. Optionally a camera may be located proximate said doorbell.

A barrier operator feature enhancement device is designed to provide one or more features found in modern barrier operator devices and to incorporate those features into a previously installed barrier operator system. To facilitate ease of use, the barrier operator feature enhancement device can communicate with a large variety of barrier operators. Such communication may be wireless or wired, depending on the communication protocol implemented by a particular previously installed barrier operator. To facilitate the ease of installation, the device is designed to configure itself to operate with the communication protocol of the previously installed barrier operator. Once configured to be able to communicate with the previously installed barrier operator, the feature enhancement device works with the barrier operator to provide one or more additional features to enhance the capabilities of the previously installed barrier operator.

Implementations generally relate to systems, apparatuses, and methods for a security application for a residential electrical switch sensor device platform. In some implementations, a sensor device performs operations including detecting an activity in the living space, determining contextual security information, and determining an occurrence of an intrusion event based on the activity in the living space. In response to the occurrence of the intrusion event, the device is operative to perform further operations including sending a notification to one or more destinations based on the intrusion event, and activating one or more surveillance devices based on the intrusion event.