Smart thermostat orchestration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing smart thermostat systems lack a centralized platform for efficient management and orchestration across multiple devices, leading to inefficiencies in energy usage and comfort control, particularly in commercial and industrial environments with varying occupancy patterns and energy demands.
Innovation Solution
A Cloud Orchestration Platform (COP) that connects to multiple smart thermostats, allowing for unified management, automatic programming, and demand response integration, enabling coordinated temperature control and energy load balancing across diverse smart thermostat models and locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If multiple smart thermostats are managed independently without a centralized platform, then each device can operate autonomously with simple control logic, but energy usage efficiency deteriorates and coordination across devices is lost
Solution Approach 1:
A centralized cloud-based orchestration platform is introduced as an intermediary between multiple smart thermostats and the external environment. This platform receives occupancy data, weather forecasts, and demand response signals, then coordinates temperature setpoints across multiple thermostats to optimize energy usage. The platform acts as a mediator that enables efficient energy management without requiring complex peer-to-peer communication between devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The orchestration platform performs multiple functions: it manages temperature coordination across devices, processes occupancy data from various sources, integrates weather forecast information, and implements demand response protocols. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate systems into a single universal platform.
2Productivity
If a centralized orchestration platform is implemented to coordinate multiple smart thermostats, then energy usage efficiency improves through coordinated control, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The orchestration platform is implemented as a cloud-based service that segments the complex orchestration logic from individual thermostat devices. This allows the platform to handle sophisticated coordination algorithms, data processing, and communication protocols remotely, while individual thermostats maintain simple local execution of received setpoints. The segmentation reduces complexity at the device level while enabling advanced functionality at the system level.
3Ease of operation
If automatic programming is implemented based on occupancy and historical data, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements automatic programming where the orchestration platform analyzes occupancy data and historical temperature patterns to generate optimized setpoints without user intervention. The platform serves itself by automatically learning from data and adjusting schedules, eliminating the need for manual programming while maintaining simple operation for end users.
Solution Approach 2:
The automatic programming system continuously monitors occupancy data, temperature readings, and energy consumption patterns, then uses this feedback to refine and adjust temperature schedules. The system learns from historical data and real-time occupancy information to automatically optimize programming, reducing manual configuration needs while improving energy efficiency over time.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for orchestrating the operation of energy-consuming loads, so as to minimize power consumption, are described. In some embodiments, the loads can be HVAC, refrigeration systems, air compressors, and the like, and orchestration is effected either directly or by means of the loads' respective controllers. In some aspects, the controllers can be Smart Thermostats and orchestration is effected through a Cloud-based orchestration platform or “COP.” In certain aspects, a COP uses specifically programmed application programming interfaces, or APIs, to control the operation of a single manufacturer's Smart Thermostats, where the manufacturer provides its own Cloud-based control platform, through which the COP operates. The COP can similarly orchestrate the operation of two or more manufacturers' Smart Thermostats through their respective Cloud-based control platforms. By these and other means, the operation of a variety of energy-consuming loads can be more easily and efficiently orchestrated.