Screw the thermostat! InThrMa brings building climate to the Web

Pretty much everything is moving to the cloud these days. Why not your home or business’s thermostat?

InThrMa is giving consumers and businesses a way to manage the temperature through a Web-based interface that they can access from their mobile devices or PC. Users can see real-time power consumption data based on what temperature they’ve set for the building.

The company presented its plan Thursday at VentureBeat’s Innovation Competition at the GreenBeat 2010 conference on cleantech at Stanford University.

The service also allows users to automatically adjust the temperature in their homes depending on the weather and a thermal profile of the building. The service automatically adjusts to how much heat the building loses or holds onto on a regular basis, said Tatum Nolan, VP of business development for InThrMa. Users can also track their efficiency based on how much energy they are consuming to cool or heat their homes.

“You let us know when you need your building at a certain temperature and we’re able to deliver that,” he said. “We’re able to reduce overall electricity load by 24 percent when they aren’t in business.”

InThrMa also gives users real-time alerts to reduce their electricity consumption during peak hours — like on a hot day — as a response to additional costs for using energy at peak usage times. Users can also get alerts when there are any technical issues with air conditioning or heating units.

But if there are any problems with the service, users can automatically override it and adjust the building’s temperature by hand.