"Smart" Thermostat

Theta Engineering designed, programmed and produced a pilot run of a microcontroller-based "smart" thermostat product that conserves energy by sensing the presence of people in a room and cutting back to reduced settings when the room is unoccupied. This project required the development and utilization of the following technologies: passive-infrared motion detection, short-range RF signaling, LCD control, conductive rubber switches, temperature sensing, and triac phase control in addition to a novel self-powering technique to eliminate batteries.