Problem Statement

Homeowners struggle with optimizing their home temperature settings.

a) Most of the times, the whole house may be heated/cooled when only one
room/area is needed to be heated/cooled. This wastes a lot of energy and
money. To avoid heating the whole home, the home owners have to manually
adjust the dampers in each and every room, which they typically would not
do every day.
b) A single programmable thermostat cannot maintain different temperatures
for multiple rooms simultaneously.
c) The current programmable thermostats installed in a typical home are not
intelligent enough to adjust the temperatures automatically based on the
home dwellers schedule/calendar which may change constantly.
d) AC and heating systems will take some time to bring a room to the desired
temperature. It is desirable to have the room temperature at individual
desired level instantly when needed.
What?
An Internet of Things system called AutoComfort that can be installed in your
house to intelligently trigger the controls of home heating/cooling settings for each
and every room/area. An intelligent software will be built that interfaces with the
home dwellers calendars and adjust the home settings automatically.
For Whom?
For modern families who are well connected electronically, always busy and on the
run.
When?
24/7. One can change the settings through software interface at any time.
Where?
This specific idea would be a central intelligent IOT system that would be located in
your house. Connected to home AC system, the dwellers calendar and multiple IOT
sensors.
Overall Problem?
Deals with Home AC settings

My Overall Solution
An Internet of Things system called AutoComfort that can be installed in your
house to intelligently trigger the controls of home heating/cooling settings for each
and every room/area. An intelligent software will be built that interfaces with the
home dwellers calendars and adjust the home settings automatically.
AutoComfort

Element A
Harsha Dantuluri

Facts
Fact1
Thermostats are present in almost all homes and businesses and they have
changed significantly in the last decade. More advanced features such as
programmability offer great potential for energy savings. But with this increased
technical complexity has come a corresponding complexity in the user interface.
The following study was done by ACEEE on energy efficiency in buildings and the
following is a key conclusion. Users simply do not adjust the thermostats as needed
or these are not programmed correctly.
The failure of programmable thermostats to deliver substantial energy savings is
due in large part to the fact that many users simply do not program their
thermostats. In California, estimates show that as few as 50% households program
their programmable thermostats.
This fact demonstrates that people will not adjust the thermostats
regularly and a self-adjusting tool will help to increase the savings when
users are inept in adjusting their thermostats.
Outcault, S., Barriga, C., Heinemeier, K., Markley, J., & Berman, D. (2014).
Thermostats Cant Fix This: Case Studies on Advanced Thermostat Field
Tests. Retrieved October 14, 2014, from
http://aceee.org/files/proceedings/2014/data/papers/7-1157.pdf

Fact2
If there is a single person in the house when everyone else has left the home,
heating/cooling the whole house is a lot of waste of money.
The amount of money wasted on heating/cooling empty rooms is directly
proportional to how long these rooms are empty.
Wasted money (TinTout) dt
The Zone based temperature control system will help in heating/cooling only the
spaces that are occupied by people.
This is also supported by the following argument from Physics experts discussing
the necessity of a Zone based temperature control and the necessity to get the
desired temperature faster when needed.

AutoComfort

Element A
Harsha Dantuluri

Physics Experts, (2012, February 3). Should I heat my room when I'm not
here, energy-efficiently speaking? Retrieved October 9, 2014, from
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/20480/should-i-heat-myroom-when-im-not-here-energy-efficiently-speaking
This fact suggests that there is a demand for both zone based
temperature control and to get to the desired temperature faster when
needed.

Fact3
People waste lot of energy by using their appliances inefficiently. An intelligent
software can reduce the waste of energy.
The energy is wasted because of Air leakage as follows.
Floors, Walls and Ceilings 34 %
HVAC Ducts 15 %
Fire Place 14 %
Plumbing Penetrations 13 %
Doors 11%
Windows 10%
Fans and Vents 4 %
Electric Outlets 2 %.
By not circulating the heat or cold air in the unused rooms will reduce the overall
wastage.
Green Home Gnome. (2014). How Energy gets used and wasted in the
home. Retrieved October 9, 2014, from http://visual.ly/how-energy-getsused-and-wasted-home
This fact supports the argument that the energy waste must be reduced
and energy saving is very important to the society at large.

AutoComfort

Element A
Harsha Dantuluri

Supporting Arguments
Supporting Argument 1
Business Case Support
There are various successful businesses that are established to provide Zone based
heating and cooling. The business cases are supported by the arguments as listed
below.
Hearth, Patio and Barbeque Association (www.hpba.org/) made an argument
for zone heating based on the fact that central furnace to all rooms will waste lot of
energy.
A central furnace can waste money by heating your entire home even unoccupied
rooms. Zone heating, with a fireplace, stove, or log set insert in the rooms your
family occupies most, allows you to turn down the thermostat of the central furnace
and can decrease your fuel bill by 20 to 40 percent. Zone heating is the perfect
solution for warming a cold room or a new room addition.
This fact supports the argument that heating the entire home when only
few rooms are occupied will waste lot of energy and money. Zone
temperature control will save lot of energy and money and give comfort in
the rooms where people are occupied.
HPBA, The Easy and Efficient Way to Heat Your Home. (2014, January 1).
Retrieved October 9, 2014, from
http://static.hpba.org/fileadmin/Builders_Designers/ConsumerBroc_SCREEN
1.pdf

Supporting Argument 2
Business Case Support for Zoned Control System
Aprilaire made a business case and commercial products to give individual comfort
zone to separate rooms.
Aprilaire, Zoned Temperature Control. (2014). Retrieved October 12, 2014,
from http://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/whole-houseproducts/thermostats/zoned-comfort-control
This fact supports the argument that heating the entire home when only
few rooms are occupied will waste lot of energy and money. There is a
demand for Zone based temperature control.

AutoComfort

Element A
Harsha Dantuluri

However these are individual thermostats installed in each rooms and still
requires manual adjustments of each individual room thermostats and
temperatures.
Aprilaire, head quartered in USA has been delivering Total Comfort solutions for
more than 50 years. Their history as an innovator in the industry began in 1954
when they introduced the first truly effective whole-home humidifier.

Supporting Argument 3
The following are some of the tips from experts to save energy. The basic
supportive argument is to close heating vents in the unused rooms.
Turn off the heat in unused rooms
Close the heating vent in the guest bedroom or any other room in the house that
you dont use very much.
This fact supports the argument that heating the entire home when only
few rooms are occupied will waste lot of energy and money.
Hamm, T. (2014, August 28). Twelve Tactics to Minimize Winter Heating
Bills. Retrieved October 9, 2014, from
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/twelve-tactics-to-prepare-for-winterheating-bills-besides-woodstoves/

Supportive Argument 4
An advice by Sierra Black, who writes about Personal Finance, Sustainable living
and Parenting. Published on November 29th 2010 in her blog on the website,
www.getrichslowly.org.
Use Heating Zones
Chances are, youre not using every part of your house all day long.
To solve this problem, Ive created a bunch of heat zones in my house. By keeping
the bedroom doors closed upstairs and hanging drapes in the hallway doors
downstairs, I cut our drafty hallway and staircase out of the heating system entirely.
Now the radiators in each room only have to heat those rooms, not those rooms
plus several hundred square feet of largely unused hallway space.
This fact supports the argument that heating the entire home when only
few rooms are occupied will waste lot of energy and money. There is a
demand for Zone based temperature control.
Black, S. (2010, November 29). How to Lower Your Heating Bills This
Winter. Retrieved October 9, 2014, from
AutoComfort

Element A
Harsha Dantuluri

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/11/29/how-to-lower-your-heatingbills/

AutoComfort

Element A
Harsha Dantuluri

Extra Resources
http://www.cisco.com/web/tomorrow-starts-here/ioe/index.html?
POSITION=SEM&COUNTRY_SITE=us&CAMPAIGN=tomorrowstartshere&CREATIVE=Io
E_IoE&REFERRING_SITE=Google&KEYWORD=internet+of+things_p&KEYCODE=000
032348&gclid=CjwKEAjwo6hBRDOmsPSjqakuzYSJADR2V3SQtBU2syRYIG_QDR95YakJM94Le-bFLnOGvoTCNEpBoC5erw_wcB
http://iotinternetofthingsconference.com/
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/do-it-yourself/edison.html
https://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-23147
http://www.forbes.com/sites/oreillymedia/2014/09/23/who-will-build-the-godplatform-for-the-internet-of-things/
http://postscapes.com/projects
http://www.serviceexperts.com/samsblog/november_2008/the_five_most_common_furnace_and_heating_problems.aspx
http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/common-air-conditioner-problems
Similar Devices
https://nest.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nest_Labs
http://home.howstuffworks.com/nest-learning-thermostat6.htm
Nest (Google) Patents
http://envisionip.com/blog/2014/01/14/google-will-acquire-an-impressive-patentportfolio-from-nest-labs/
http://stephenvandulken.blogspot.com/2014/01/nest-labs-patents.html

AutoComfort

Element A
Harsha Dantuluri