Patent ID: 9612589
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: F24F,G05B,G05D

Claim:
1. A method, performed by a computer system, for conditioning a building environment based on occupancy estimates, wherein the building has a plurality of zones, the method comprising: for each of a plurality of users, tracking the user's entries to and exits from the building on a mobile device associated with the user; in response to receiving notice of an entry event for the user, associating the user with a primary zone specified by the user; monitoring the user's calendar for calendar events occurring for the user; in response to a calendar event occurring for the user at a location different from the user's primary zone, (i) temporarily associating the user with the zone associated with the calendar event and temporarily disassociating the user from the user's primary zone at the start of the calendar event and (ii) disassociating the user from the zone associated with the calendar event and re-associating the user with the user's primary zone at the end of the calendar event; in response to receiving notice of an exit event for the user, disassociating the user from the zone last associated with the user; estimating occupancy within each zone using the zone-correlated entry, exit, and calendar events; and conditioning each zone in accordance with the estimated occupancy of the zone.