Methods, systems and apparatuses are disclosed to control heating and cooling costs. A Household Utility Bill (or HUB) controller, including a processor, may receive a user input indicating a budget for temperature control costs. A user may provide the user input using a touchscreen display. The touchscreen display may be included on the HUB controller. Further, the HUB controller may determine, at predetermined intervals, an estimated cost associated with operating a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit. The HUB controller may compare the estimated cost with the budget. The HUB controller may transmit, using a wireless communication unit, an electronic message to a predetermined user device, including a request to confirm shutting off the HVAC unit based on a determination that the estimated cost equals or exceeds the budget. After the HVAC unit is shut off, the HUB controller may remain active but an electromechanical valve may become inactive.

A system and method are provided for controlling water temperature in a body of water. The temperature control system includes a processor, a user interface for receiving a desired temperature and a desired time for reaching the desired temperature, a sensor interface for receiving sensor information from one or more sensors, and an actuator interface for controlling a plurality of heat sources. The processor determines one or more optimal heat sources for heating the body of water to the desired temperature by the desired time. The processor controls the one or more optimal heat sources through the actuator interface and periodically polls the sensor interface to determine whether changes in the operating environment require additional or alternate heat sources to be activated to ensure that the body of water is heated to the desired temperature by the desired time.

Disclosed herein are related to a system, a method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for operating an energy plant having a plurality of subplants that operate to produce one or more resources consumed by a building based on ranks. In one aspect, the system obtains rank identifiers indicating ranks of the plurality of subplants. In one aspect, the ranks indicate a priority of each subplant with respect to production of a resource relative to other subplants that produce the resource. In one aspect, the system determines resource allocation of the plurality of subplants according to the ranks of the plurality of subplants. The system may operate the plurality of subplants according to the resource allocation.

A system and method are provided for controlling water temperature in a body of water. The temperature control system includes a processor, a user interface for receiving a desired temperature and a desired time for reaching the desired temperature, a sensor interface for receiving sensor information from one or more sensors, and an actuator interface for controlling a plurality of heat sources. The processor determines one or more optimal heat sources for heating the body of water to the desired temperature by the desired time. The processor controls the one or more optimal heat sources through the actuator interface and periodically polls the sensor interface to determine whether changes in the operating environment require additional or alternate heat sources to be activated to ensure that the body of water is heated to the desired temperature by the desired time.

A method and a device to heat water in an electrical boiler are disclosed. The method include the steps of storing user's requests of hot water in association with corresponding times of requests, heating water in advance to a next user's request, wherein the next user's request is estimated on the stored user's requests. The device is the hardware implementing the method.

A temperature control apparatus for a building, the apparatus comprising: an electricity generator, operable to contribute to an electrical power supply for consumer appliances at the building; a heat transfer circuit adapted to circulate heat transfer fluid to cool the electricity generator; a heating system comprising a heat source for providing heat energy to a space heater for heating at least one zone of the building and to a hot water tank arranged to store a supply of hot water for the building, and a heat exchanger adapted to supplement the heat energy from the heat source with heat energy obtained from the heat transfer circuit; a user interface adapted to enable a user to select at least one of (a) a desired temperature for the at least one zone of the building, and a first time period during which the desired temperature is to be maintained; and (b) a second time period for the supply of hot water from the hot water tank; and the apparatus further comprising: a controller configured to determine when to operate the electricity generator based on at least one of: (i) the thermal capacity of the hot water tank; and (ii) the first time period, the desired temperature and the current temperature of the at least one zone of the building.

A facility for performing setpoint adjustment-based duty cycling techniques by adjusting the setpoint of a device or component is described. The facility reduces energy consumption for a system, such as an HVAC system, or device by adjusting or modulating an associated setpoint or temperature setting. The facility modulates the setpoint between a base setpoint value and another setpoint value based on a mode of the system. When the system is in a cooling mode, the facility modulates the temperature between the base setpoint value and a higher setpoint value. When the system is in heating mode, the facility modulates the temperature between the base setpoint value and a lower setpoint value. The facility may modulate the setpoint between the two setpoint values based on an offset value or a fixed setpoint value.

The present disclosure relates to a climate management system having a control system configured to control climate characteristics of a building. The control system further includes a memory device and a processor. The memory device includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive, via a sensor, data indicative of an evaporator coil temperature of the climate management system, and operate an air mover of the climate management system to control supply of conditioned air to the building based on the evaporator coil temperature.

A system for a plurality of thermostats each located in a different building in a neighborhood. Each thermostat includes a processing circuit configured to receive one or more assigned operating time slots from an analytics service and operate building equipment associated with the thermostat based on the one or more assigned operating time slots. The system further includes the analytics service. The analytics service includes a processing circuit configured to receive weather forecast data from a weather service and predict a period of time during which an energy usage peak will occur for the plurality of buildings based on the weather forecast data, determine the one or more operating time slots based on the period of time, assign the one or more operating time slots to each of the plurality of thermostats, and send the one or more assigned operating time slots to the plurality of thermostats.

A method and system for intelligent demand response by a load controller device connected to a load is provided. Demand response events generated by utilities can generate energy conservation however they can provide demand subpeaks during the event and can impact user comfort. In order to improve the energy profile and user comfort one or more event parameters from the DR event are generated. One or more temperature setpoints of the load controller device are modified to provide smooth setpoint transition between temperature setpoints using the generated one or more event parameters to shape electricity demand of the load to reduce an expected demand subpeak during the DR event. The modified one or more temperature setpoints can be applied at an associated time to control the load.