ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,624,854, issued on May 12, was assigned to TYCO FIRE & SECURITY GMBH (Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland).

"HVAC systems with start time optimization" was invented by Michael J. Risbeck (West Chester, Ohio), Camille M. Aucoin (Milwaukee), Benjamin J. Sveum (Hampden, Maine), Christopher R. Amundson (Grafton, Wis.) and Matthew J. Asmus (Watertown, Wis.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A heating, ventilating, or air conditioning (HVAC) system that operates equipment to affect a physical property of an environment. The HVAC system obtains schedules including two time periods during which a criterion for the physical property of a environment i...