Patent ID: 8544285

Claim:
A thermostat, comprising: a housing; a user interface comprising an electronic display; a processing system disposed within the housing and coupled to the user interface, the processing system being configured to be in operative communication with one or more temperature sensors for determining an ambient air temperature, in operative communication with one or more input devices including said user interface for determining a setpoint temperature value, and in still further operative communication with a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to control the HVAC system based at least in part on a comparison of a measured ambient temperature and the setpoint temperature value; and a plurality of HVAC connectors configured to receive a corresponding plurality of HVAC control wires corresponding to the HVAC system, each HVAC connector having an identifier that identifies one or more HVAC functionalities associated with that HVAC connector; and a connection sensing module coupled to said plurality of HVAC connectors and configured to determine the identities of a first subset of the plurality of HVAC connectors into which corresponding HVAC wires have been inserted, wherein the processing system is further configured to process said identities of said first subset of HVAC connectors to determine a configuration of the HVAC system to be controlled, wherein said processing comprises: identifying, based on said identities of said first subset of HVAC connectors, whether (i) only a single possible HVAC system configuration is indicated thereby, or (ii) multiple possible HVAC system configurations are indicated thereby; and operating, if said single possible HVAC system configuration is indicated, said HVAC system according to said single possible HVAC system configuration; resolving, if said multiple possible HVAC system configurations are indicated, a particular one of the multiple possible HVAC system configurations that is applicable based on at least one user response to at least one inquiry to a user presented on said user interface, and operating said HVAC system according to said resolved particular HVAC system configuration.