WIRELESS CONTROLLED THERMOSTAT WITH REDUCED POLLING COMMUNICATIONS DURING PREDICTED PERIODS OF LOW ACTIVITY TO SAVE POWER

摘要

A temperature control apparatus for controlling operation of at least onetemperature-modifying device includes a housing, a wireless communication moduleconfigured tocommunicate with a remote Internet-based server, and a controller incommunication with thewireless communication module. The controller is configured to: (i) controloperation of thetemperature modifying device in response to a comparison of a measured ambienttemperaturewith a setpoint temperature, (ii) in a user-selectable first mode ofoperation, during a first timeperiod during a day, poll the remote server at a first rate of at least sixtimes per hour, using thewireless communication module, for an instruction to change the setpointtemperature, and (iii)in the first mode of operation, during a second time period, poll the remoteserver at a secondrate that is lower than the first rate, using the wireless communicationmodule, for an instructionto change the setpoint temperature.