Abstract
Remote sensors for a control device such as a thermostat enable it to adjust the temperature at the location of the occupants of the home or office. If the thermostat misses one or more remote temperature readings, temperature control can be unsatisfactory. This disclosure describes techniques that forestall thermostat problems such as stale sensors and outdated readings arising from lapses in connectivity between a thermostat and its remote sensors. A robust, fail-safe mechanism is described that detects and mitigates connectivity problems by reverting control to a local temperature sensor if the requested remote sensors provide invalid or stale data. A temperature reading older than a certain threshold (e.g., several minutes) is deemed stale and, as it passes further duration thresholds, is gradually removed from HVAC control. Of multiple selected sensors, if some readings are stale and some are not, the stale sensors can still contribute to the mean temperature estimate, but with reduced (down-weighted) influence. A missed remote-temperature reading can result in the thermostat increasing its scanning frequency to increase the likelihood of receiving the reading during the next sensor transmission.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Burger, Eric and Yang, Ernie, "Safe, Robust, and Graceful Handling of Stale or Offline Remote Sensors", Technical Disclosure Commons, (April 03, 2025)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/7965