Communicating Thermostat System Laboratory Testing

This report describes the procedures, equipment, and results obtained as related to the performance testing of the EcoFactor thermostat system by PG&E's Applied Technology Services (ATS) Department. The EcoFactor product allows the user to communicate with and control their thermostat from the web or mobile device. The system tested was an EcoFactor enabled Computime thermostat that connects to the internet via a Digi Smart Energy Gateway device that communicates with the thermostat using the Zigbee protocol at 2.4GHz. In addition, EcoFactor implements a system optimization strategy that was not tested as part of this project. The purpose of this lab study is to test thermostat functionality among three channels of communication: wall thermostat, mobile management, and web based management. In addition, communication ranges under various configurations, including interference, were examined under various configurations, with interference causes and mitigation measures investigated to provide applicable information for successful installations. The results from these lab tests showed that the product performed as expected and will directly support the PG&E EcoFactor Trial program. EcoFactor is a vendor-neutral solution. The combination of a Computime thermostat and Digi Smart Energy Gateway is one example of a platform that would support EcoFactor’s optimization solution.