Abstract
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Existing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) sy stems typically rely on a user (e.g. a home owner) to provide scheduling informa tion about when they will be home or away. However, some users may never provide this information to the HVAC system. Determining whether a home owner will be p resent or away without requiring the user to provide this information in advance poses several technical challenges because existing HVAC systems lack the capab ilities to determine this information on their own. Without this information, an HVAC system is unable to provide energy saving benefits, for example reduced po wer consumption, and reduce the wear on its components because existing HVAC sys tem are unable to automatically adjust set point temperatures without knowing wh ether a user is present. In some instances, it is not desirable for an HVAC syst em to make changes to a set point temperature while a user is present because th ese changes may affect the comfort level of the user.”
NETL
NSTL