US Patent 11294343 Predictive free cooling

An environmental control system for a building in a geographic location and having a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system includes at least one computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processing device in communication with the external application, enables the at least one processing device to receive weather data characterizing a weather forecast over a predetermined time period for the geographic location, receive free-cooling window data, determine, based on the weather data and free-cooling window data, an available free-cooling time window, and issue to the external application an executable command to the HVAC system to enter free-cooling mode during the available free-cooling time window.