Thermostat facilitating user-friendly installation thereof

US8757507B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Nest Labs, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Anthony M. Fadell · Portola Valley, US
• Yoky Matsuoka · Palo Alto, US
• Matthew Lee Rogers · Los Gatos, US
• David Sloo · Menlo Park, US
• Michael Plitkins · Berkeley, US
• Rangoli Sharan · Sunnyvale, US
• Joseph Adam Ruff · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 1, 2011
• Grant date: Jun 24, 2014
• Expiry date: Dec 13, 2032

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T29/49826
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A thermostat for controlling an HVAC system and related systems, methods, and computer program products for facilitating user-friendly installation of the thermostat are described. For one embodiment, automated installation verification is performed by the thermostat by automatically sensing which wires have been inserted, selecting a candidate HVAC operating function (e.g., heating or cooling) that is consistent with a subset of HVAC signal types indicated by the inserted wires, applying control signals to the HVAC system to invoke that HVAC operating function, and processing a time sequence of acquired temperature readings to determine whether that HVAC operating function was successfully carried out. For one embodiment, the initial automated testing of the heating and cooling functions are only carried out at times for which such heating or cooling function would normally be invoked during normal operation of the thermostat. Automated determination of a heat pump call convention is also described.