Wireless Thermostat

Feb. 27, 2009

The consensus opinion of journalists attending the ARC Forum press conferences February 2 held Cypress Envirosystems as most likely new company to succeed. The company, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp., announced that the low cost and fast installation of the Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat make it ideal for improving the energy efficiency of buildings targeted by the planned federal stimulus program.

Gary Mintchell

According to President Obama on January 7th, 2009, the stimulus program aims to “save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75 percent of federal buildings more energy efficient.” However, the majority of these older buildings uses pneumatic HVAC controls, and cannot implement night setback, zone control, occupancy override, auto demand response, or other energy savings strategies requiring modern Direct Digital Control (DDC).

Conventional retrofit of pneumatic controls to DDC typically costs over $2,500 per zone and causes significant disruption to building tenants. The long investment payback (usually four to seven years) and the need to wait for tenants to vacate premises mean that most legacy buildings never upgrade despite compelling energy and productivity savings.

Cypress Envirosystems’s new Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat (WPT) accomplishes the same retrofit in less than 20 minutes, for less than 20 percent of the cost of conventional DDC. This means that retrofits can be performed right away, even while a building is fully occupied, and achieve payback periods of about one year. These are key advantages for stimulus funding eligibility.