Patent ID: 7537171

Claim:
An improved thermostat control system having one or more battery powered wireless remote temperature sensors, the improvement comprising: one or more remote temperature sensors that are capable of sensing temperature, said sensors having transmitters that transmit signals at a lower power level and a higher power level, said signals comprising temperature information and a unique identification code and user-assigned code associated with each of the one or more remote temperature sensors, the one or more remote sensors controlling said transmitter to successively alternate between transmitting a high power transmission signal and transmitting a set of low power transmission signals, followed by transmitting another high power transmission signal and transmitting a set of low power transmission signals, in continuous succession such that the transmitter transmits at least a predetermined number of signals at the lower power level for every signal transmitted at the higher power level, to thereby ensure at least one transmission at a high power transmission level is reliably received in a given number of successive transmissions, whereby the one or more remote sensors transmit signals only when the sensed temperature changes by more than a predetermined amount such that battery consumption is reduced; a processor for controlling the operation of the thermostat; a receiver means within the thermostat for receiving and identifying transmitted signals that comprise a unique identification code, the receiver means being configured to communicate to the processor only those signals that comprise one of a select set of unique identification codes, and wherein the processor stores the transmitted temperature information associated with the user-assigned code that identifies each remote sensor among one or more remote temperature sensors, for use in controlling the operation of the thermostat.