SMART Thermostats
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GUIDE TO SMART thermostats We change the way people use energyTM Acknowledgements 2 Acknowledgements CLEAResult’s Guide to Smart Thermostats was researched, compiled, written and The CLEAResult team would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their created by the following individuals: contributions to this paper: Emily Kemper, project lead Samantha Taylor Keren Verch and Jenny Roehm Schneider Electric Mark Jerome, project manager Thomas Anreise Peter Black and Maitreyi Viswanathan Bruce Manclark Trevor Frick ecobee Dan Wildenhaus Varun Thakkar Joey Barr WeatherBug Home Eli Caudill Jon Fortenbury Jeff Gleeson and Brian Farhi James Domanski Valerie Cedeno Nest Labs Jeff Carter Elisa Leichty Ed Impala and Patrick Clarke Honeywell Kaity Tang Diana Maes Emmett Romine and Paul Wezner Ray Phillips Powerley Claire Miziolek NEEP Talk to us If you have questions about this publication, please contact [email protected]. Table of contents Acknowledgements .................................2 Works with ............................................ 18 Table of contents .....................................3 User experiences .................................. 19 Glossary ...................................................4 Installation ............................................................ 19 Introduction .............................................5 Setup ....................................................................... 19 History of thermostats .........................................6 Interactions ........................................................... 20 What is a smart thermostat? ..............................7 Education and training ......................... 21 Benefits and challenges ......................................7 QA/QC with smart thermostats ........... 21 Markets ....................................................8 Evaluations ............................................ 22 Product functionality and specifications 9 Energy savings and demand reduction 23 Smart thermostat functionality ..................... 10 Looking through the gas program lens 25 National specifications ..................................... 12 Existing CLEAResult programs ............ 26 Manufacturers ....................................... 13 Summary and recommendations.......... 27 ecobee ................................................................... 13 Design and implementation .......................... 27 Nest ......................................................................... 14 Potential for advanced M&V .......................... 28 Honeywell ............................................................. 14 Conclusion ............................................................ 29 Schneider Electric .............................................. 15 Other device manufacturers .......................... 15 Thermostat optimization ...................... 16 WeatherBug ......................................................... 16 EnergyHub® .......................................................... 16 EcoFactor® .............................................................17 Powerley .................................................................17 Glossary 4 Glossary Here’s a list of definitions to give you a high-level understanding of terms used in this paper. Communicating thermostats are devices that control Home energy management systems, or HEMS, refer Setback is when a thermostat is adjusted from the cooling and heating equipment through a user to any hardware or software system that monitors and the setpoint, while the home is unoccupied or the and equipment interface. These devices are often provides feedback about a home’s energy usage and/or occupants are asleep. This is an energy-saving strategy programmable, though they tend to offer more options enables advanced control of energy-using systems and made possible by the creation of smart. Appropriate to operate auxiliary devices than other programmable devices in the home. setbacks vary by system type. Gas furnaces have larger thermostats. They also reduce the required number of capacities than other HVAC systems, so larger setbacks In-home display, or IHD, is a screen or dashboard conductor wires between the user interface and the are appropriate. Heat pumps have small capacities, so physically present in the home. Most often IHD is used indoor unit, which can be ideal for retrofit applications. setbacks should be small to prevent the use of electric to describe a dashboard that monitors or controls Not all communicating thermostats are smart strip heat. several energy-using systems in the home (sometimes thermostats, though. referred to as a “command center”). Smart thermostats allow users to control the Connected thermostat: See Wi-Fi thermostat and temperature of your home using a schedule. Its Internet of things, or IoT, is any physical device that’s smart thermostat below. heating settings can be controlled from Internet- connected to the Internet and inside a home or business connected devices, like smartphones, computers Demand reduction, or demand response (kW), is that can control the device. and tablets—making it easy to switch off the heating when an electric utility customer reduces their power Learning algorithms are built by learning thermostats or air conditioning when the house is empty. Smart consumption to better match the demand for power and thermostat optimization to improve the HVAC thermostats can save more energy than Wi-Fi with the supply. To get people to reduce electricity use system performance. thermostats because of their occupancy or proximity- in peak periods, many utilities will offer price incentives sensing technology feature. for reducing power consumption in peak periods. The Learning thermostats can automatically learn when the implication of this is that it can prevent customers from house is likely to be occupied or empty. This allows it to Thermostat optimization compares historical energy paying “surge” unit prices, whether directly or factored automatically pre-heat or pre-cool the house, to make it usage data from a connected thermostat or device into general rates. Demand reduction is a great solution comfortable when a resident arrives. Even if a resident’s to real-time weather data. After it determines how to the problem, since there are limits to what can be lifestyle changes, the smart thermostat will gradually a home responds to specific weather conditions, achieved on the supply side in a timely manner. adjust the schedule to maintain both energy savings and weather optimization is performed to the timing of the comfort. A well-known example is the Nest thermostat. thermostat’s setpoint schedule. Occupants still control Energy savings, or energy conservation (kWh), is when the settings and manage the thermostat schedule someone reduces energy consumption by using less Low-voltage thermostat senses a home’s temperature by altering the timing of when the system should use electricity. An example of how to achieve this could be to maintain the system’s temperature near a desired energy to meet that temperature. shutting off a HVAC system with a smart thermostat or setpoint. The thermostat does this by switching heating changing the setpoint of the thermostat, while the home or cooling devices on or off, maintaining the correct Wi-Fi thermostat, also known as a connected, is unoccupied or the occupants are asleep. temperature. Most thermostats are low voltage, whether programmable communicating thermostat, or PCT, they’re smart, communicating or programmable controls a HVAC system from an Internet-connected Geofencing is a virtual perimeter for a real-world thermostats. device. All smart thermostats are wireless, connected geographical area. You can dynamically generate and PCTs, but not all PCTs are smart. a geofence, around something like a home. When Occupancy sensor is an energy-saving heating or someone enters this area, it could trigger an alert cooling control device that detects the occupancy of a Zone thermostats control the temperature of individual to the device’s user or geofence operator. This space and automatically turns the HVAC system on or rooms instead of the entire home. This can increase information could be used for something like triggering off accordingly. These sensors use infrared, ultrasonic, energy savings. a thermostat to heat or cool the home prior to the microwave or other technology. occupant arriving home. Programmable thermostats electronically control Heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC, heating and cooling equipment to deliver pre-set refers to heating and cooling equipment and sometimes indoor conditions at established times. This doesn’t the duct system attached to such a system. Thermostats automatically make it a smart or communicating are typically used to control the operation of thermostat, though. these devices. Introduction 5 Introduction To truly understand smart thermostats, you have to understand where they came from. It all started with the smart grid, which has been evolving since the late 20th window coverings, Wi-Fi enabled sound systems, outlet level plug-load century. The technology, devices and software that allow us to capitalize on controls and—the focus of this paper—smart thermostats. the promises of smart grid infrastructure began to appear in the last several CLEAResult has been tracking the growth of the smart grid and HEMS years, and in 2016, they are now ready for widespread use. products for several