US 12,492,835 B2
Diagnostics of outdoor unit of HVAC system based on sound signatures
Payam Delgoshaei, Addison, TX (US); Sridhar Venkatesh, Irving, TX (US); and Eric Berg, The Colony, TX (US)
Assigned to Lennox Industries Inc., Richardson, TX (US)
Filed by Lennox Industries Inc., Richardson, TX (US)
Filed on Apr. 12, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/299,482.
Prior Publication US 2024/0344729 A1, Oct. 17, 2024
Int. Cl. F24F 11/38 (2018.01); F24F 11/49 (2018.01); F24F 11/52 (2018.01); F24F 140/00 (2018.01)
CPC F24F 11/38 (2018.01) [F24F 11/49 (2018.01); F24F 11/52 (2018.01); F24F 2140/00 (2018.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
a thermostat communicatively coupled to a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system;
a user device communicatively coupled to the thermostat, wherein the user device comprises a first processor configured to:
send a first instruction to the thermostat to shut down the HVAC system;
instruct a user to minimize background noise;
instruct the user to go to an outdoor unit of the HVAC system;
instruct the user to capture an image of a nameplate of the outdoor unit;
analyze the image to determine a distance of the user from the outdoor unit;
compare the distance to a distance range;
in response to determining that the distance is within the distance range, capture baseline sound data for a first time period;
send a second instruction to the thermostat to turn on the HVAC system;
determine a value of a room temperature;
send a third instruction to the thermostat to set a temperature setpoint below or above the value of the room temperature;
capture first outdoor unit sound data for a second time period; and
send the first outdoor unit sound data and the baseline sound data to a computing system; and
the computing system communicatively coupled to the user device, wherein the computing system comprises a second processor configured to:
subtract the baseline sound data from the first outdoor unit sound data to determine first normalized outdoor unit sound data;
analyze the first normalized outdoor unit sound data to determine first sound signatures;
identify expected first sound signatures of the outdoor unit;
compare the first normalized outdoor unit sound data to the expected first sound signatures;
in response to determining that an expected sound signature for a compressor is missing from the first normalized outdoor unit sound data, determine that the compressor has failed; and
send a first notification to the user device that the compressor has failed.