Cricket
Wireless Thermostat
An internally funded project
Ratio's designers and engineers use their skills to solve their own challenges, as well as those of our clients. The team worked together to solve the problem of maintaining the appropriate air temperature in each area of our office building. People prefer a comfortable 72°F, while the computer severs require a steady 60°F. Adding to the problem, our building is mostly glass, and suffers from huge temperature fluctuations. To solve this, we developed a wireless thermostat system for multi-zone environments.
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Cricket
(continued)
 Cricket is a system of radio-transmitted thermostats, or "Crickets," that report information to a central receiver. The team chose a radio transmitter to eliminate the expense and complications of wiring a traditional thermostat system. Wiring was simply not feasible in our converted bank building, which has two vaults and several walls that are three feet thick.
Each Cricket displays the
following information: current temperature in the zone, desired temperature, heating or cooling mode, and a battery-life indicator.
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Cricket (continued)
 To
save power, the Cricket uses "sleep" mode most of the
time, waking up every three minutes to check the temperature. If the
temperature differs from the previous reading, the Cricket sends a
signal to the receiver stating the new temperature. The receiver is
getting little bits of information from all the Crickets around the
office at different times, which explains the origin of the
"cricket" metaphor. The receiver signals the HVAC system
to adjust the temperature in the different zones as necessary.
The Cricket can be powered by a 3.6V lithium ion battery, or by three AAA batteries. This system has been running in our office for three years. Cricket has not only alleviated our battle with temperature control, but also has reduced Ratio's HV AC costs by about 50%! (beginning of article) |