Cypress Envirosystems Corporation (Cypress Envirosystems), a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (Cypress) said that the low cost and fast installation of its Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat (WPT) increases the energy efficiency of buildings. This improvement is targeted by the planned federal stimulus program. The WPT can seamlessly integrate with modern building automation systems from virtually all major vendors via BACnet/IP.

President Obama said on January 7, 2009 that the stimulus program aims to save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient. 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, which is usually four to seven years, and the need to wait for tenants to vacate mean that most legacy buildings never upgrade despite compelling energy and productivity savings.

The new Cypress Envirosystems WPT accomplishes the same retrofit in less than 20 minutes, for less than 20% 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.

The WPT is directly compatible with the major legacy pneumatic thermostats from Honeywell International Inc., Johnson Controls, Inc., Robertshaw and Siemens.

Numerous third party systems integrators have implemented the BACnet link including EMCOR Group, Inc., ACCO, Johnson Controls, Inc., Siemens, RSD-Total Control, Wolf Mechanical, Syserco and others.

In addition, the system has completed compatibility testing with utility Auto-Demand Response systems developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and in use by California utilities to shed electrical load during peak consumption periods.

Dan Ginn, general manager of RSD-Total Controls, a distributor and installer of the WPT said, In today’s challenging business environment, this technology can be a savior to help us implement projects that are otherwise economically unfeasible.

The Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat will help unlock an enormous reservoir of potential energy savings from legacy facilities, including older federal buildings, said Bien Irace, senior vice president of business development for Cypress Envirosystems.