Patent ID: 7702422

Claim:
A computer program product in a computer readable medium for controlling a climate control system, the computer program product comprising: first instructions that issue a query for an operational mode of a plurality of climate control devices, the operational mode being one of cooling mode, heating mode and idle mode; second instructions, responsive to receipt of a response message, that compare the operational mode of at least one of the plurality of climate control devices with a desired operational mode of a first climate control device, the desired operational mode being one of cooling mode, heating mode and idle mode; third instructions that perform an evaluation for determining whether activating the first climate control device in the desired operational mode will result in a climate control device conflict where the desired operational mode is different from the operational mode of at least one of the plurality of climate control devices; and fourth instructions, responsive to determining that activating the first climate control device in the desired operational mode will result in a climate control device conflict, for determining that the first climate control device is not to be activated in the desired operational mode, wherein the third instructions accumulate a first count of the plurality of climate control devices that are operating in the desired operational mode and a second count of the plurality of climate control devices that are active in an operational mode that differs from the desired operational mode, and performs a comparison of the first count and the second count, wherein the evaluation is performed responsive to the comparison.