Patent Document ID: 9582009
Application ID: 13871168
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for optimizing and reducing the energy usage or cost of operation of an automatically controlled heating, ventilation and air conditioning (“HVAC”) system, comprising: receiving, by a server, a plurality of parameters, the parameters comprising: an internal temperature of a structure; an external temperature; a utility pricing structure; and an user preference; receiving, by the server, a plurality of historical data related to the HVAC system; generating, by the server, a model configured to determine a change to an operational state of the HVAC system needed to obtain an internal temperature set point, wherein the model is further configured to be generated using a plurality of model parameters comprising: the internal and external temperatures of the structure; the utility pricing structure; the user preference; future weather forecast of a geographic area to be served; and the plurality of historical data related to the HVAC system; iteratively processing and updating the model, by the server, using a result of a previously generated model, current data for the plurality of parameters and a plurality of additional parameters, wherein the additional parameters comprise a future utility pricing structure; and a future user preference; creating initial set point sets, wherein each set point set comprises set point values for a predetermined number of hours; calculating hourly system runtime for each set point set by using the generated model; calculating a cost for each set point set based on the calculated hourly system runtime; ranking the set point sets by the calculated cost; determining if the costs for each of the set point sets vary by more than a pre-determined amount; when the costs for each of the set point sets vary by more than the pre-determined amount, creating new set point sets and then returning to the calculating hourly system runtime for each set point set step; when the costs for each of the set point sets vary by not more than the pre-determined amount, selecting the set point set with the lowest cost; and sending, by the server, a signal to the HVAC system, the signal configured to affect a current operational state of the HVAC system, wherein the signal is the selected set point set.